The reading span task (RST) is a common memory span task widely cited in, and adapted for, investigations of working memory, cognitive processing, and reading comprehension that was first published by Meredyth Daneman and Patricia Carpenter in 1980.
It is a complex verbal test because it draws upon both storage and processing (i.e., reading) elements of working memory, while simple verbal tests (e.g., word span) require the storage element alone.
[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Van den Noort et al. created a computerized version of the test, which, when tested among four different languages (Dutch, English, German, and Norwegian), was shown to meet strict methodological criteria of the original RST and yielded similar results.
This allowed direct comparisons of RST results to be made across different language groups.
[10] In an attempt to formulate a standardized version of the RST, numerous problems with both the original and variants have been critically examined.