فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

BACKGROUND: In a world where education directly influences the quality of life of an individual,educational handicaps are a grave issue that plagues the lives of those affected. The current studyaims to find out whether there is a difference in the cognitive style and working memory capacityamong adolescents with specific learning disability (SLD) in comparison to their age‑matchedequivalent group without SLD. The study also targets to find out if there exists any relationshipbetween cognitive style and working memory.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of sixty participants were selected (thirty adolescents withlearning disability and thirty age‑matched adolescents without learning disability) from Bangaloredistrict of Karnataka and Thrissur district of Kerala using purposive sampling method. The tools usedwere the Indian adaptation of Embedded Figures Test by Nigam (1997) and the Wechsler IntelligenceScale for Children‑Fourth Edition by Wechsler (2003).RESULTS: The results showed that there exists a significant difference in cognitive style dimensions offield dependence and independence between adolescents with learning disability (M = 11.6, standarddeviation [SD] = 6.52) and adolescents without learning disability (M = 25.2, SD = 7.33) as well as inthe working memory capacity between adolescents with learning disability (M = 66.7, SD = 19.26)and adolescents without learning disability (M = 102, SD = 14.93) groups under study (p < 0.01).The results also indicate that there exists no significant relationship between cognitive style andworking memory.CONCLUSION: Adolescents with SLD was found to be field dependent and has low workingmemory capacity than adolescents without learning disability. The results reflect the need fordeveloping cognitive interventions to enhance working memory capacity and cognitive style forhelping adolescents with learning disability in all areas of their functioning, such that the societybenefits as a whole.