Working memory in children: a time-constrained functioning similar to adults.

Within the time-based resource-sharing (TBRS) model, we tested a new conception of the relationships between processing and storage in which the core mechanisms of working memory (WM) are time constrained. However, our previous studies were restricted to adults. The current study aimed at demonstrating that these mechanisms are present and functional before adulthood. For this purpose, we investigated the effect on maintenance of the duration of the attentional capture induced by processing. In two experiments using computer-paced WM span tasks, 10-year-olds were asked to maintain letters while performing spatial location judgments. The duration of this processing was manipulated by varying either the discriminability between target locations or the contrast between targets and background. In both experiments, longer processing times resulted in poorer recall, as we observed previously in adults. These findings suggest that the core mechanisms of WM described by the TBRS model are already settled during childhood.

[1]  Valérie Camos,et al.  Developmental Increase in Working Memory Span: Resource Sharing or Temporal Decay? ☆ , 2001 .

[2]  Vinciane Gaillard,et al.  Working memory span development: a time-based resource-sharing model account. , 2009, Developmental psychology.

[3]  Richard P. Heitz,et al.  Focusing the spotlight: individual differences in visual attention control. , 2007, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[4]  Valérie Camos,et al.  Low working memory capacity impedes both efficiency and learning of number transcoding in children. , 2008, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[5]  Andrew R. A. Conway,et al.  Variation in working memory , 2008 .

[6]  B. Dosher,et al.  External noise distinguishes attention mechanisms , 1998, Vision Research.

[7]  John N. Towse,et al.  Variation in working memory due to normal development , 2007 .

[8]  Andrew R. A. Conway,et al.  On the capacity of attention: Its estimation and its role in working memory and cognitive aptitudes , 2005, Cognitive Psychology.

[9]  G. Hitch,et al.  What limits children's working memory span? Theoretical accounts and applications for scholastic development. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[10]  Klaus Oberauer,et al.  A formal model of capacity limits in working memory , 2006 .

[11]  Patrick C. Kyllonen,et al.  Reasoning ability is (little more than) working-memory capacity?! , 1990 .

[12]  Juan Pascual-Leone,et al.  A mathematical model for the transition rule in Piaget's developmental stages , 1970 .

[13]  Baptist Liefooghe,et al.  Working memory costs of task switching. , 2008, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[14]  P. Barrouillet,et al.  Delays of Retention, Processing Efficiency, and Attentional Resources in Working Memory Span Development. , 2004 .

[15]  S. Millar,et al.  Why does memory span improve with age? A review of the evidence for two current hypotheses , 1993 .

[16]  P. Barrouillet,et al.  The Time-Based Resource-Sharing Model of Working Memory , 2020, Working Memory.

[17]  G J Hitch,et al.  Is there a Relationship between Task Demand and Storage Space in Tests of Working Memory Capacity? , 1995, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[18]  D. Geary Mathematical disabilities: cognitive, neuropsychological, and genetic components. , 1993, Psychological bulletin.

[19]  M. D’Esposito Working memory. , 2008, Handbook of clinical neurology.

[20]  J. Philippe Rushton Douglas N. Jackson, 1929¿2004 , 2005 .

[21]  P. Barrouillet,et al.  Time constraints and resource sharing in adults' working memory spans. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[22]  Robbie Case,et al.  Intellectual development : birth to adulthood , 1985 .

[23]  P. Barrouillet,et al.  Is the influence of working memory capacity on high-level cognition mediated by complexity or resource-dependent elementary processes? , 2008, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[24]  Pierre Barrouillet,et al.  Adult counting is resource demanding. , 2004, British journal of psychology.

[25]  J. Dixon,et al.  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , 2001 .

[26]  P. Barrouillet,et al.  Time and cognitive load in working memory. , 2007, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[27]  Pierre Barrouillet,et al.  Strategies in subtraction problem solving in children. , 2008, Journal of experimental child psychology.