Is Written Language Production More Difficult Than Oral Language Production? A Working Memory Approach

Is written language production more difficult than oral language production? Probably, yes. But why? Several experiments were conducted in order to test the impact of low‐level activities involved in writing on the performance of higher‐level activities also involved in writing. Three assumptions were made: (1) the capacity of working‐memory is limited, (2) every component of writing has a cognitive load, and (3) every increase in the load devoted to the activity of one component would lead to a decrease in the remaining resources available for the other components. These low‐level activities are more resource‐consuming in children than in adults because children have not yet automated these activities. So, it was hypothezised that the difficulties encountered by children in dealing with the low‐level activities would have a negative impact on the performance of higher activities. To test that hypothesis, a serial recall paradigm was used. Adults and children were asked to recall series of words, either orally or in writing. The results showed that: (1) serial recall of children, but not of adults, was weaker with writing as compared to speaking; (2) the slowness of writing relative to speaking did not explain these results; and (3) the difficulties of graphic and of orthographic transcription were partially responsible for these results. These results are discussed in the general framework of production models.