The role of attention in the development of short-term memory: age differences in the verbal span of apprehension

Disentangling Processing and Storage Accounts of Working Memory Development in Childhood

Researchers have been asking the question of what drives the development of working memory (WM) during childhood for decades. This question is particularly challenging because so many aspects of cognition develop with age that it is difficult to disentangle them and find out which factors are causal or fundamental. In this review, we first prepare to discuss this issue by inquiring whether increases in storage, processing, or both are the fundamental driving factor(s) of the age-related increase in WM capability in childhood. We contend that by experimentally manipulating either factor and observing changes in the other, it is possible to learn about causal roles in WM development. We discuss research on school-aged children that seems to suggest, by means of such an approach, that the growth of storage is causal for some phases or steps in WM tasks, but that the growth of processing is causal for other steps. In our theoretical proposal, storage capacity of the focus of attention determines earlier steps of information processing by constraining the selective encoding of information into WM, whereas processing dependent on the focus of attention determines later steps, like the detection of patterns that can simplify the effective memory load and adoption of a proactive stance of maintenance in dual-task settings. Future directions for research are discussed.

Why does visual working memory ability improve with age: More objects, more feature detail, or both? A registered report

We investigated how visual working memory (WM) develops with age across the early elementary school period (6-7 years), early adolescence (11-13 years), and early adulthood (18-25 years). The work focuses on changes in two parameters: the number of objects retained at least in part, and the amount of feature-detail remembered for such objects. Some evidence suggests that, while infants can remember up to three objects, much like adults, young children only remember around two objects. This curious, nonmonotonic trajectory might be explained by differences in the level of feature-detail required for successful performance in infant versus child/adult memory paradigms. Here, we examined if changes in one of two parameters (the number of objects, and the amount of detail retained for each object) or both of them together can explain the development of visual WM ability as children grow older. To test it, we varied the amount of feature-detail participants need to retain. In the baseline condition, participants saw an array of objects and simply were to indicate whether an object was present in a probed location or not. This phase begun with a titration procedure to adjust each individual's array size to yield about 80% correct. In other conditions, we tested memory of not only location but also additional features of the objects (color, and sometimes also orientation). Our results suggest that capacity growth across ages is expressed by both improved location-memory (whether there was an object in a location) and feature completeness of object representations.

Working memory development: A 50-year assessment of research and underlying theories

The author has thought about working memory, not always by that name, since 1969 and has conducted research on its infant and child development since the same year that the seminal work of Baddeley and Hitch (1974) was published. The present article assesses how the field of working memory development has been influenced since those years by major theoretical perspectives: empiricism (along with behaviorism), nativism (along with modularity), cognitivism (along with constructivism), and dynamic systems theory. The field has not fully discussed the point that these theoretical perspectives have helped to shape different kinds of proposed working memory systems, which in turn have deeply influenced what is researched and how it is researched. Here I discuss that mapping of theoretical viewpoints onto assumptions about working memory and trace the influence of this mapping on the field of working memory development. I illustrate where these influences have led in my own developmental research program over the years.

Development of auditory cognition in 5- to 10-year-old children: Focus on musical and verbal short-term memory

Developmental aspects of auditory cognition were investigated in 5-to-10-year-old children (n = 100). Musical and verbal short-term memory (STM) were assessed by means of delayed matching-to-sample tasks (DMST) (comparison of two four-item sequences separated by a silent retention delay), with two levels of difficulty. For musical and verbal materials, children's performance increased from 5 years to about 7 years of age, then remained stable up to 10 years of age, with performance remaining inferior to performance of young adults. Children and adults performed better with verbal material than with musical material. To investigate auditory cognition beyond STM, we assessed speech-in-noise perception with a four-alternative forced-choice task with two conditions of phonological difficulty and two levels of cocktail-party noise intensity. Partial correlations, factoring out the effect of age, showed a significant link between musical STM and speech-in-noise perception in the condition with increased noise intensity. Our findings reveal that auditory STM improves over development with a critical phase around 6-7 years of age, yet these abilities appear to be still immature at 10 years. Musical and verbal STM might in particular share procedural and serial order processes. Furthermore, musical STM and the ability to perceive relevant speech signals in cocktail-party noise might rely on shared cognitive resources, possibly related to pitch encoding. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that auditory STM is assessed with the same paradigm for musical and verbal material during childhood, providing perspectives regarding diagnosis and remediation in developmental learning disorders.

The development of metacognitive accuracy in working memory across childhood

Growth in working memory capacity, the number of items kept active in mind, is thought to be an important aspect of childhood cognitive development. Here, we focused on participants' awareness of the contents of their working memory, or meta-working memory, which seems important because people can put cognitive abilities to best use only if they are aware of their limitations. In two experiments on the development of meta-working memory in children between 6 and 13 years old and adults, participants were to remember arrays of colored squares and to indicate if a probe item was in the array. On many trials, before the probe recognition test, they reported a metajudgment, how many items they thought they remembered. We compared meta-working memory judgments to actual performance and looked for associations between these measures on individual and trial-by-trial levels. Despite much lower working memory capacity in younger children there was little change in meta-working memory judgments across age groups. Consequently, younger participants were much less realistic in their metajudgments concerning their working memory capability. Higher cognitive capacity was associated with more accurate meta-working memory judgments within an age group. Trial-by-trial tuning of metajudgments was evident only in young adults and then only for small array set sizes. In sum, meta-working memory ability is a sophisticated skill that develops with age and may be an integral aspect of the development of working memory across the school years. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

[Cognitive aging apart from dementia]

Cognitive aging apart dementia results from different genetic programming, different according to individuals. The aging of the various cognitive and very heterogeneous cognitive functions largely depends on the life course of each person. Social factors, in particular the environment in which a person lives, may or may not accelerate the processes of cognitive aging. The slower processing speeds of information from the environment, practical or strategic new acquisitions, and the difficult management of multiple tasks, reflect an age-related hypofrontality. Physical and mental health, social and relational well-being participate in good cognitive aging. Exploration of the different facets of cognitive aging shows its complexity.

Load effects in attention: Comparing tasks and age groups

Attention is limited in terms of both capacity (i.e., amount of information attended) and selectivity (i.e., the degree to which non-attended information is nonetheless processed). One of the seminal theories in the field, load theory, predicts that these two aspects of attention interact in systematic ways. Specifically, load theory predicts that when the amount of information to attend is less than the available capacity, spare attention will naturally leak out to unattended items. While load theory has found a great deal of empirical support, the robustness of the findings has recently been called into question, in particular with respect to the extent to which the predictions are borne out across different tasks and populations. Here we report tests of perceptual load effects in two different tasks (change detection and enumeration) and in two populations (adults and 7- to 8-year-old children). Adults' accuracies did not demonstrate the predicted interaction between the capacity and selection dimensions, whereas children's performance, in addition to being overall worse than adults, did show the interaction. The overall lower accuracy of children was seen to be the result of a larger performance decrement in response to capacity demands, distracting information, and their interaction. Interestingly, while these results were seen at the level of the two tasks, there was no within-participants correlation across tasks. Overall, these results suggest that maturation-related changes attenuate the magnitude of distractor effects in attention, which in turn limits the evidence for interactions between capacity and selection in high-functioning populations.

The development of working memory spatialization revealed by using the cave paradigm in a two-alternative spatial choice

When Western participants are asked to keep in mind a sequence of verbal items, they tend to associate the first items to the left and the last items to the right. This phenomenon, known as the spatial-positional association response codes effect, has been interpreted as showing that individuals spatialize the memoranda by creating a left-to-right mental line with them. One important gap in our knowledge concerns the development of this phenomenon: when do Western individuals start organizing their thought from left to right? To answer this question, 274 participants in seven age groups were tested (kindergarten, Grades 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and adults). We used a new protocol meant to be child-friendly, which involves associating two caves with two animals using a two-alternative spatial forced choice. Participants had to guess in which cave a specific animal could be hidden. Results showed that it is from Grade 3 on that participants spatialize information in working memory in a left-to-right fashion like adults.

The Relationship Between Parental Play Beliefs, Preschoolers' Home Experience, and Executive Functions: An Exploratory Study in Ethiopia

Although research has highlighted the importance of home experience and especially of play in early brain development, the value of this factor for executive function (EF) development has not received the attention it deserves. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the link between parental play beliefs and preschoolers' play frequency at home on the one hand and their EF skills on the other. Additionally, other types of home activities were also assessed. A total of 102 preschoolers (45 girls; mean age = 62.08 months; SD = 7.66 months; range, 50-74 months) with their parents (mean age = 35.21 years; SD = 6.96 years) representing low to middle socioeconomic status (SES) families in Ethiopia participated in the study. Results revealed that children's home activities (frequency of breakfast at home, spending mealtime together with family, participation in peer play, participation in pretend play, and participation in arts and crafts) and parental play support were significantly positively correlated with their performance on EF tasks. Hierarchical regression analyses controlling for age and SES showed that parental play support and frequency of breakfast at home were medium-sized predictors (β = 0.36, p < 0.001 and β = 0.31, p = 0.001, respectively) explaining a significant level of variance in inhibitory control, while participation in arts and crafts at home was a significant predictor (β = 0.22, p = 0.03) of children's performance on a visual-spatial working memory (VSWM) task. In conclusion, parental play support and preschoolers' home activities are important factors linked with EF development in early childhood.

Investigating the Effect of One Year of Learning to Play a Musical Instrument on Speech-in-Noise Perception and Phonological Short-Term Memory in 5-to-7-Year-Old Children

The benefits in speech-in-noise perception, language and cognition brought about by extensive musical training in adults and children have been demonstrated in a number of cross-sectional studies. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether one year of school-delivered musical training, consisting of individual and group instrumental classes, was capable of producing advantages for speech-in-noise perception and phonological short-term memory in children tested in a simulated classroom environment. Forty-one children aged 5–7 years at the first measurement point participated in the study and either went to a music-focused or a sport-focused private school with an otherwise equivalent school curriculum. The children’s ability to detect number and color words in noise was measured under a number of conditions including different masker types (speech-shaped noise, single-talker background) and under varying spatial combinations of target and masker (spatially collocated, spatially separated). Additionally, a cognitive factor essential to speech perception, namely phonological short-term memory, was assessed. Findings were unable to confirm that musical training of the frequency and duration administered was associated with a musicians’ advantage for either speech in noise, under any of the masker or spatial conditions tested, or phonological short-term memory.

The Contribution of Individual Differences in Memory Span and Language Ability to Spatial Release From Masking in Young Children

Purpose Working memory capacity and language ability modulate speech reception; however, the respective roles of peripheral and cognitive processing are unclear. The contribution of individual differences in these abilities to utilization of spatial cues when separating speech from informational and energetic masking backgrounds in children has not yet been determined. Therefore, this study explored whether speech reception in children is modulated by environmental factors, such as the type of background noise and spatial configuration of target and noise sources, and individual differences in the cognitive and linguistic abilities of listeners. Method Speech reception thresholds were assessed in 39 children aged 5-7 years in simulated school listening environments. Speech reception thresholds of target sentences spoken by an adult male consisting of number and color combinations were measured using an adaptive procedure, with speech-shaped white noise and single-talker backgrounds that were either collocated (target and back-ground at 0°) or spatially separated (target at 0°, background noise at 90° to the right). Spatial release from masking was assessed alongside memory span and expressive language. Results and Conclusion Significant main effect results showed that speech reception thresholds were highest for informational maskers and collocated conditions. Significant interactions indicated that individual differences in memory span and language ability were related to spatial release from masking advantages. Specifically, individual differences in memory span and language were related to the utilization of spatial cues in separated conditions. Language differences were related to auditory stream segregation abilities in collocated conditions that lack helpful spatial cues, pointing to the utilization of language processes to make up for losses in spatial information.

Interactions between visual working memory and visual attention among survivors of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and their healthy peers

Introduction: There is increasing concern for adverse cognitive late effects among survivors of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) given the widespread impact they have on academic achievement, particularly working memory and attention. We assessed performance among survivors and their healthy peers on a dual task paradigm measuring visual working memory (VWM) and visual attention independently and the dynamic relationship between the two. Assessing specific subsets within cognitive domains allows for understanding the distinct nature of cognitive impairments. Method: Participants were 34 survivors of ALL who have been off-treatment and disease free for 7.5 years; and 20 healthy controls, all between the ages of 10 and 18 years. We utilized behavioral single- and dual-task paradigms. In the dual tasks, participants maintained several items in VWM while performing a visual attention task (Eriksen Flanker Task) that required processing of a target stimulus while inhibiting the processing of distractor stimuli. The single tasks involved performing only the VWM task or only the visual attention task. Results: Results revealed survivors of ALL performed significantly worse than their healthy peers on the single visual attention task but not the single VWM task. Of particular interest, group differences were obtained on the dual VWM and visual attention tasks, such that the VWM and attention tasks reciprocally interfered with each other only among survivors and not their healthy peers. Conclusions: Our results highlight a core deficit in visual attention that is exacerbated by VWM demands among survivors of ALL. The implementation of tasks from cognitive neuroscience paradigms may be sensitive to cognitive impairments experienced by cancer survivors. Assessment and intervention practices among survivors of pediatric ALL are discussed.

Modeling the Relations Among Sustained Attention, Short-Term Memory, and Language in Down Syndrome

Sustained attention (SA) and short-term memory (STM) contribute to language function in Down syndrome (DS). We proposed models in which relations of SA to language in DS are mediated by STM. Thirty-seven youth with DS aged 10-22 years (M = 15.59) completed SA, STM, and language tasks. Cross-sectional mediation analyses were run with the bootstrapping method. We found significant indirect effects of SA separately on vocabulary and syntax through auditory STM with point estimates of -.30 and -.31, respectively. Results suggest lapses in SA compromise auditory STM, which in turn impacts vocabulary and syntax in youth with DS; however, further research is needed to confirm causality. Addressing SA and STM in language therapy with youth with DS could lead to improved outcomes.

Task-unrelated thought depends on the phonological short-term memory system more than the visual short-term memory system

This study examined which type of short-term memory (STM), phonological or visual, is involved in and more important for representing contents of task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs). Three experiments consistently showed that TUTs were less likely to be reported during phonological STM tasks than either visual STM or control tasks. In contrast, the number of TUT responses did not considerably differ between visual STM tasks and control tasks even for TUTs with many visual images. This difference cannot be explained by the differential involvement of executive control processes because task difficulty was controlled for in the multi-level logistic regression analysis. These results, together with the finding that most TUT responses contained verbal images, suggest that phonological STM plays an important role in representing verbal images in TUTs, while visual STM is less or not involved in representing TUTs, even for those with many visual images.

Developmental changes of sleep spindles and their impact on sleep-dependent memory consolidation and general cognitive abilities: A longitudinal approach

Sleep spindles are related to sleep‐dependent memory consolidation and general cognitive abilities. However, they undergo drastic maturational changes during adolescence. Here we used a longitudinal approach (across 7 years) to explore whether developmental changes in sleep spindle density can explain individual differences in sleep‐dependent memory consolidation and general cognitive abilities. Ambulatory polysomnography was recorded during four nights in 34 healthy subjects (24 female) with two nights (baseline and experimental) at initial recording (age range 8–11 years) and two nights at follow‐up recording (age range 14–18 years). For declarative learning, participants encoded word pairs with a subsequent recall before and after sleep. General cognitive abilities were measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale. Higher slow (11–13 Hz) than fast (13–15 Hz) spindle density at frontal, central, and parietal sites during initial recordings, followed by a shift to higher fast than slow spindle density at central and parietal sites during follow‐up recordings, suggest that mature spindle topography develops throughout adolescence. Fast spindle density increases from baseline to experimental night were positively related to sleep‐dependent memory consolidation. In addition, we found that the development of fast spindles predicted the improvement in memory consolidation across the two longitudinal measurements, a finding that underlines a crucial role for mature fast spindles for sleep‐dependent memory consolidation. Furthermore, slow spindle changes across adolescence were related to general cognitive abilities, a relationship that could indicate the maturation of frontal networks relevant for efficient cognitive processing. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NXJzm8HbIw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuMQY1OIJ0s

Unattended processing of hierarchical pitch variations in spoken sentences

An auditory oddball paradigm was employed to examine the unattended processing of pitch variation which functions to signal hierarchically different levels of meaning contrasts. Four oddball conditions were constructed by varying the pitch contour of critical words embedded in a Mandarin Chinese sentence. Two conditions included lexical-level word meaning contrasts (i.e. TONE condition) and the other two sentence-level information-status contrasts (i.e. ACCENTUATION condition). Both included stimuli with early vs. late acoustic cue divergence points. Results showed that the two early-cue conditions elicited earlier Mismatch Negativities, regardless of their functional hierarchy. The deviant stimuli induced theta-band power increases in the TONE condition but beta-band power decreases in the ACCENTUATIION condition, regardless of the timing of their acoustic cues. These results suggest that, in an unattentive state, the human brain can functionally disentangle hierarchically different levels of pitch variation, and the brain responses to these pitch variations are time-locked to the presence of the acoustic cues.

Effects of Developmental Age on Symptom Reporting and Neurocognitive Performance in Youth After Sports-Related Concussion Compared to Control Athletes

There is increased necessity to focus research on school-aged athletes with sports-related concussion (SRC). This study assessed differences in symptom reporting and neurocognitive performance in youth athletes who sustained a sports-related concussion. A total of 1345 concussed and 3529 nonconcussed athletes (ages 8-21) completed the Immediate Post-concussive Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT). Analyses of covariance were conducted in order to assess differences in neurocognitive performance and symptom reporting between the sports-related concussion and control groups across age ranges. Longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling was employed to examine age and its relationship with rates of sports-related concussion recovery in neurocognitive performance. Results revealed athletes aged 13 to 15 had significantly lower neurocognitive performance scores compared to same-aged athletes without a history of sports-related concussion. With respect to the hierarchical linear modeling results, age was identified as a unique predictor of symptom recovery, particularly for ages 8 to 12. Results provide a better understanding of typical symptom reporting and neurocognitive outcomes for younger athletes across different ages.

Recalling and Intending to Enact Health Recommendations: Optimal Number of Prescribed Behaviors in Multibehavior Messages

Two experiments investigated the effects of the number of health recommendations (e.g., quit smoking; relax for a day) contained in a health-promotion message on recommendation recall and intentions to enact the recommendations. We hypothesized that if recommendations are stored individually, a higher number of presented recommendations will increase the number of recalled recommendations. As the number of recommendations increases, however, recipients are likely to summarize more recommendations as part of a single, more general theme (or header), resulting in a decrease in the proportion of recalled recommendations. Two experiments (N = 193 and N = 266) found that the total number of recalled recommendations increased and the proportion of recalled recommendations decreased with the number of presented recommendations. Experiment 2 replicated the findings with the number and the proportion of intended behaviors. The implications of these findings for future behavioral health interventions are discussed.

Working Memory Maturation: Can We Get at the Essence of Cognitive Growth?

The theoretical and practical understanding of cognitive development depends on working memory, the limited information temporarily accessible for such daily activities as language processing and problem solving. In this article, I assess many possible reasons that working memory performance improves with development. A first glance at the literature leads to the weird impression that working memory capacity reaches adult levels during infancy but then regresses during childhood. In place of that unlikely explanation, I consider how infant studies may lead to overestimates of capacity if one neglects supports that the tasks provide, compared with adult-level tasks. Further development of working memory during the school years is also considered. Many investigators have come to suspect that working memory capacity may be constant after infancy because of various factors such as developmental increases in knowledge, filtering out of irrelevant distractions, encoding and rehearsal strategies, and pattern formation. With each of these factors controlled, though, working memory still improves during the school years. Suggestions are made for research to bridge the gap between infant and child developmental research, to understand the focus and control of attention in working memory and how these skills develop, and to pinpoint the nature of capacity and its development from infancy forward.

Mental Objects in Working Memory: Development of Basic Capacity or of Cognitive Completion?

Working memory is the small amount of information that we hold in mind and use to carry out cognitive processes such as language comprehension and production, problem solving, and decision making. In order to understand cognitive development, it would be helpful to know whether working memory increases in capacity with development and, if so, how and why. I will focus on two major stumbling blocks toward understanding working memory development, namely that (1) many potentially relevant aspects of the mind change in parallel during development, obscuring the role of any one change; and (2) one cannot use the same test procedure from infancy to adulthood, complicating comparisons across age groups. With regard to the first stumbling block, the parallel development of different aspects of the mind, we discuss research in which attempts were made to hold constant some factors (knowledge, strategies, direction of attention) to investigate whether developmental differences remain. With regard to the second stumbling block, procedural differences in tests for different age groups, I suggest ways in which the results might be reconciled across procedures. I highlight the value of pursuing research that could distinguish between two different key hypotheses that emerge: that there is a developmental increase in the number of working memory slots (or in a basic resource that holds items in working memory), and that there is a developmental increase in the amount of detail that each of these slots can hold.

Research on memory development: Historical trends and current themes

This article presents a survey of research on memory development conducted within the last 120 years. It begins with an examination of historical trends and then focuses on developmental trends over the last three decades. The article concludes with some predictions of future research activities and trends in this classic domain of cognitive development.

Developmental Trajectories in Primary Schoolchildren Using n-Back Task

Background: Neuropsychological instruments to assess cognitive trajectories during childhood in epidemiological studies are needed. This would improve neurodevelopment characterization in order to identify its potential determinants. We aimed to study whether repeated measures of n-back, a working memory task, detect developmental trajectories in schoolchildren during a 1-year follow-up.

Methods: We administered the n-back task to 2897 healthy children aged 7–11 years old from 39 schools in Barcelona (Spain). The task consisted of 2 levels of complexity or loads (2- and 3-back) and 2 different stimuli (numbers and words). Participants performed the task four times from January 2012 to March 2013. To study the trajectories during the follow-up, we performed linear mixed-effects models including school, individual and age as random effects.

Results: We observed improvements related to age in n-back outcomes d′, HRT and accuracy, as well as reduced cognitive growth at older ages in d′ and HRT. Greater improvements in performance were observed at younger ages, in 2-back, in verbal rather than numerical stimuli and in girls compared to boys. Boys responded faster at baseline, while girls showed increased growth in 2-back numbers. Children with ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) symptoms (15% of boys and 6% of girls) had a lower working memory at baseline, but they showed similar cognitive growth trajectories in numbers variants of the task, as compared to children without ADHD symptoms. However, the age-related improvement in response speed was not observed in children with ADHD symptoms.

Conclusions: Changes in n-back outcomes reflected developmental trajectories in 1-year follow-up. The present results suggest that the repeated administration of this task can be used to study the factors that may alter the cognitive development during childhood.

Age related changes in auditory processes in children aged 6 to 10 years

OBJECTIVES

The study evaluated age related changes in auditory processing (separation/auditory closure, binaural auditory integration abilities, temporal processing abilities) and higher order cognitive function (auditory memory & sequencing abilities) in children. Additionally, the study aimed to assess the effect of gender on the auditory processes/higher cognitive function as well as ear effect for the monaural tests that were administered.

METHODS

The cross-sectional experimental study evaluated 280 typically developing children aged 6 to 10 years, divided into five age groups. They were evaluated on auditory processes/higher order cognitive functions reported to be frequently affected in children with auditory processing disorders (Speech-in-Noise Test in Indian-English, Dichotic consonant-vowel test, Duration pattern test, & Revised Auditory Memory and Sequencing Test in Indian-English).

RESULTS

ANOVA and MANOVA revealed no significant gender effect in all four tests. However, a significant age effect was seen, with the rate at which maturation occurred, varying across the tests.

CONCLUSIONS

Thus, the findings indicate that different auditory processes have different rates of development. This reflects that the areas responsible for different auditory processes/higher cognitive function do not develop at the same pace.

The developmental influence of primary memory capacity on working memory and academic achievement

In this study, we investigate the development of primary memory capacity among children. Children between the ages of 5 and 8 completed 3 novel tasks (split span, interleaved lists, and a modified free-recall task) that measured primary memory by estimating the number of items in the focus of attention that could be spontaneously recalled in serial order. These tasks were calibrated against traditional measures of simple and complex span. Clear age-related changes in these primary memory estimates were observed. There were marked individual differences in primary memory capacity, but each novel measure was predictive of simple span performance. Among older children, each measure shared variance with reading and mathematics performance, whereas for younger children, the interleaved lists task was the strongest single predictor of academic ability. We argue that these novel tasks have considerable potential for the measurement of primary memory capacity and provide new, complementary ways of measuring the transient memory processes that predict academic performance. The interleaved lists task also shared features with interference control tasks, and our findings suggest that young children have a particular difficulty in resisting distraction and that variance in the ability to resist distraction is also shared with measures of educational attainment.

The impact of attentional allocation capacities on nonword repetition in children with specific language impairment

This study aimed at directly assessing the hypothesis that attentional allocation capacity influences poor nonword repetition (NWR) performances in children with specific language impairment (SLI), using an attention demanding visual search task given concurrently with the NWR task. Twenty-one children with SLI, 21 typically developing children matched on age and 21 typically developing children matched on nonword span performed an immediate serial recall task of nonwords. The nonword lists were presented either alone or concurrently with the visual search task. Overall, results revealed a resource-sharing trade-off between the two tasks. Children with SLI were affected to the same extent as their span-matched controls by the necessity to allocate their attentional resources between the two tasks. Interestingly, nonword processing strategies seemed to differ among groups: age-matched controls allocated a larger part of their attentional resources to the encoding stage, whereas nonword recall was more attention demanding in children with SLI and younger controls.

Differential verbal working memory effects on linguistic production in children with Specific Language Impairment

Deficits in verbal working memory (vWM) have often been reported in children with Specific Language Impairments (SLIs) and might significantly contribute to their linguistic difficulties. The linguistic and narrative skills of a group of children with diagnosis of SLI were compared to those of a group of children with typical development. The linguistic assessment included a comprehensive analysis of their lexical, grammatical and narrative abilities. Overall, the participants with SLI had difficulties at all three levels of linguistic processing. The effect of vWM was marginal on lexical processing, significant on grammatical structuring, and null on narrative construction.

The benefits of being bilingual: working memory in bilingual Turkish-Dutch children

Whether bilingual children outperform monolingual children on visuospatial and verbal working memory tests was investigated. In addition, relations among bilingual proficiency, language use at home, and working memory were explored. The bilingual Turkish-Dutch children (n=68) in this study were raised in families with lower socioeconomic status (SES) and had smaller Dutch vocabularies than Dutch monolingual controls (n=52). Having these characteristics, they are part of an under-researched bilingual population. It was found that the bilingual Turkish-Dutch children showed cognitive gains in visuospatial and verbal working memory tests when SES and vocabulary were controlled, in particular on tests that require processing and not merely storage. These findings converge with recent studies that have revealed bilingual cognitive advantages beyond inhibition, and they support the hypothesis that experience with dual language management influences the central executive control system that regulates processing across a wide range of task demands. Furthermore, the results show that bilingual cognitive advantages are found in socioeconomically disadvantaged bilingual populations and suggest that benefits to executive control are moderated by bilingual proficiency.

Working Memory Underpins Cognitive Development, Learning, and Education

Working memory is the retention of a small amount of information in a readily accessible form. It facilitates planning, comprehension, reasoning, and problem-solving. I examine the historical roots and conceptual development of the concept and the theoretical and practical implications of current debates about working memory mechanisms. Then I explore the nature of cognitive developmental improvements in working memory, the role of working memory in learning, and some potential implications of working memory and its development for the education of children and adults. The use of working memory is quite ubiquitous in human thought, but the best way to improve education using what we know about working memory is still controversial. I hope to provide some directions for research and educational practice.

Leveling the playing field: attention mitigates the effects of intelligence on memory

Effective attention and memory skills are fundamental to typical development and essential for achievement during the formal education years. It is critical to identify the specific mechanisms linking efficiency of attentional selection of an item and the quality of its memory retention. The present study capitalized on the spatial cueing paradigm to examine the role of selection via suppression in modulating children and adolescents' memory encoding. By varying a single parameter, the spatial cueing task can elicit either a simple orienting mechanism (i.e., facilitation) or one that involves both target selection and simultaneous suppression of competing information (i.e., IOR). We modified this paradigm to include images of common items in target locations. Participants were not instructed to learn the items and were not told they would be completing a memory test later. Following the cueing task, we imposed a 7-min delay and then asked participants to complete a recognition memory test. Results indicated that selection via suppression promoted recognition memory among 7-17year-olds. Moreover, individual differences in the extent of suppression during encoding predicted recognition memory accuracy. When basic cueing facilitated orienting to target items during encoding, IQ was the best predictor of recognition memory performance for the attended items. In contrast, engaging suppression (i.e., IOR) during encoding counteracted individual differences in intelligence, effectively improving recognition memory performance among children with lower IQs. This work demonstrates that engaging selection via suppression during learning and encoding improves memory retention and has broad implications for developing effective educational techniques.

Long-term functional outcomes and correlation with regional brain connectivity by MRI diffusion tractography metrics in a near-term rabbit model of intrauterine growth restriction

Background

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) affects 5–10% of all newborns and is associated with increased risk of memory, attention and anxiety problems in late childhood and adolescence. The neurostructural correlates of long-term abnormal neurodevelopment associated with IUGR are unknown. Thus, the aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive description of the long-term functional and neurostructural correlates of abnormal neurodevelopment associated with IUGR in a near-term rabbit model (delivered at 30 days of gestation) and evaluate the development of quantitative imaging biomarkers of abnormal neurodevelopment based on diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) parameters and connectivity.

Methodology

At +70 postnatal days, 10 cases and 11 controls were functionally evaluated with the Open Field Behavioral Test which evaluates anxiety and attention and the Object Recognition Task that evaluates short-term memory and attention. Subsequently, brains were collected, fixed and a high resolution MRI was performed. Differences in diffusion parameters were analyzed by means of voxel-based and connectivity analysis measuring the number of fibers reconstructed within anxiety, attention and short-term memory networks over the total fibers.

Principal Findings

The results of the neurobehavioral and cognitive assessment showed a significant higher degree of anxiety, attention and memory problems in cases compared to controls in most of the variables explored. Voxel-based analysis (VBA) revealed significant differences between groups in multiple brain regions mainly in grey matter structures, whereas connectivity analysis demonstrated lower ratios of fibers within the networks in cases, reaching the statistical significance only in the left hemisphere for both networks. Finally, VBA and connectivity results were also correlated with functional outcome.

Conclusions

The rabbit model used reproduced long-term functional impairments and their neurostructural correlates of abnormal neurodevelopment associated with IUGR. The description of the pattern of microstructural changes underlying functional defects may help to develop biomarkers based in diffusion MRI and connectivity analysis.

Working memory capacity as a dynamic process

A well-known characteristic of working memory (WM) is its limited capacity. The source of such limitations, however, is a continued point of debate. Developmental research is positioned to address this debate by jointly identifying the source(s) of limitations and the mechanism(s) underlying capacity increases. Here we provide a cross-domain survey of studies and theories of WM capacity development, which reveals a complex picture: dozens of studies from 50 papers show nearly universal increases in capacity estimates with age, but marked variation across studies, tasks, and domains. We argue that the full pattern of performance cannot be captured through traditional approaches emphasizing single causes, or even multiple separable causes, underlying capacity development. Rather, we consider WM capacity as a dynamic process that emerges from a unified cognitive system flexibly adapting to the context and demands of each task. We conclude by enumerating specific challenges for researchers and theorists that will need to be met in order to move our understanding forward.

Preschoolers' comprehension of pronouns and reflexives: the impact of the task

Pronouns seem to be acquired in an asymmetrical way, where children confuse the meaning of pronouns with reflexives up to the age of six, but not vice versa. Children's production of the same referential expressions is appropriate at the age of four. However, response-based tasks, the usual means to investigate child language comprehension, are very demanding given children's limited cognitive resources. Therefore, they might affect performance. To assess the impact of the task, we investigated learners of Dutch (three- and four-year-olds) using both eye-tracking, a non-demanding on-line method, and a typical response-based task. Eye-tracking results show an emerging ability to correctly comprehend pronouns at the age of four. A response-based task fails to indicate this ability across age groups, replicating results of earlier studies. Additionally, biases seem to influence the outcome of the response-based task. These results add new evidence to the ongoing debate of the asymmetrical acquisition of pronouns and reflexives and suggest that there is less of an asymmetry than previously assumed.

The two-word stage: motivated by linguistic or cognitive constraints?

Child development researchers often discuss a "two-word" stage during language acquisition. However, there is still debate over whether the existence of this stage reflects primarily cognitive or linguistic constraints. Analyses of longitudinal data from two Deaf children, Mei and Cal, not exposed to an accessible first language (American Sign Language - ASL) until the age of 6 years, suggest that a linguistic constraint is observed when cognition is relatively spared. These older children acquiring a first language after delayed exposure exhibit aspects of a two-word stage of language development. Results from intelligence assessments, achievement tests, drawing tasks, and qualitative cognitive analyses show that Mei and Cal are at least of average intelligence and ability. However, results from language analyses clearly show differences from both age peers and younger native signers in the early two-word stage, providing new insights into the nature of this phase of language development.

Serial and subjective clustering on a verbal learning test (VLT) in children aged 5-15: the nature of subjective clustering

This study investigated which strategies children aged 5-15 years (N = 408) employ while performing a multitrial free recall test of semantically unrelated words. Serial clustering (i.e., a relatively passive strategy) is an index of the sequential consistency of recall order. Subjective clustering (i.e., a more active strategy) is based on similar word groupings in successive trials. Previously, Meijs et al. (2009) found that the level of (serial and subjective) clustering increases with age. At all ages, the level of serial clustering correlates positively with the ability to recall information on VLT trials. However, subjective clustering is more predictive of VLT performance than serial clustering after ≥ 3 trials, but only in children aged 8+. Knowledge on how children organize words (based on, for example, sound or meaning) and how this relates to developmental stage is still lacking. This study revealed that the level of subjective clustering is primarily determined by the position of words in a VLT list. More specifically, primacy (i.e., recall of words 1-3 of the VLT list - whether recalled in the same order or reversed) and recency (i.e., recall of words 14-15) effects primarily determine level subjective organization over successive trials. Thus, older children still organize words based on the serial position of the VLT list and are much less likely to organize them based on any other feature of the words, for example, sound or meaning. This indicates that the most important information to be learned needs to be presented first or last, even in older children and even with repeated presentations.

The relationship between low-income and minority children's physical activity and academic-related outcomes: a review of the literature

This article explores an innovative strategy for battling the obesity epidemic. The strategy involves demonstrating to policy makers and education leaders the value of promoting physical activity in school as a way of enhancing academic-related outcomes to narrow the current achievement gap. A literature review was conducted to ascertain the feasibility of this strategy. Seven studies that examined the relationship between physical activity or fitness and academic-related outcomes were reviewed. Although more research is needed in this area, the majority of the articles reviewed found that regardless of socioeconomic status or ethnicity, a positive relationship exists between physical activity and academic-related outcomes. These findings suggest that integrating more physical activity into the school day may be an effective strategy to reduce both health disparities and the achievement gap.

Working memory and educational achievement in children with intellectual disabilities

BACKGROUND

There is little previous research examining whether measures of working memory are related to educational achievement in children with intellectual disabilities (ID).

METHODS

A battery of working memory and achievement measures was administered to 11- to 12-year-old children with ID; younger typically developing children of comparable mental age were also assessed.

RESULTS

The working memory measures that assessed phonological short-term memory (PSTM) accounted for the most variance in reading and spelling in children with ID, whereas the working memory measures that assessed central executive-loaded working memory (CELWM) accounted for the most variance in number skills. These relationships were broadly similar among typically developing children.

CONCLUSIONS

Compensatory strategies for weak PSTM may help to improve reading and spelling skills in children with ID, whereas reducing CELWM loads may be more helpful in aiding their number skills.

Children's higher order cognitive abilities and the development of secondary memory

The relations between higher cognitive abilities and immediate and delayed recall were studied in 57 children (6-16 years of age). The participants were tested repeatedly on free recall of a supraspan list (Children's Memory Scale), and their fluid ability was also assessed (Woodcock-Johnson III Spatial Relations). Consistent with Unsworth and Engle's (2007) account of the relation between memory and higher order cognition, the children's fluid ability was significantly correlated with retrieval from secondary memory, regardless of whether it was measured using immediate or delayed recall. Multiple regression analyses provided further support for this view, revealing that measures of immediate and delayed retrieval from secondary memory accounted for the same variance in the children's fluid ability.

Working memory and specific language impairment: an update on the relation and perspectives on assessment and treatment

PURPOSE

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) demonstrate significant language impairments despite normal-range hearing and nonverbal IQ. Many of these children also show marked deficits in working memory (WM) abilities. However, the theoretical and clinical characterization of the association between WM and language limitations in SLI is still sparse. Our understanding of this association would benefit greatly from an updated and thorough review of the literature.

METHOD

We review the newest developments in these areas from both a theoretical and clinical perspective. Our intent is to provide researchers and practicing clinicians (a) a conceptual framework within which the association between WM and language limitations of children with SLI can be understood and (b) potentially helpful suggestions for assessing and treating the memory-language difficulties of children with SLI.

CONCLUSIONS

In the past 10 years, important new theoretical insights into the range and nature of WM deficits and relation between these limitations and the language difficulties in SLI have occurred. New, robust diagnostic assessment tools and computerized treatment methods designed to enhance children's WM functioning have also been developed. The assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of the language difficulties in SLI should consider the potential influence of WM.

Multiple concurrent thoughts: The meaning and developmental neuropsychology of working memory

Working memory can be described as the small amount of information held in a readily accessible state, available to help in the completion of cognitive tasks. There has been considerable confusion among researchers regarding the definition of working memory, which can be attributed to the difficulty of reconciling descriptions from working memory researchers with very different theoretical orientations. Here I review theories of working memory and some of the main issues in the field, discuss current behavioral and neuropsychological research that can address these issues, and consider the implications for cognitive development.

Das verbale Kurzzeitgedächtnis als Produkt der Interaktion zwischen Aufmerksamkeitskapazitäten, Sequenzverarbeitung und Aktivierung des Sprachsystems

Zusammenfassung. In diesem Beitrag wird ein theoretisches Modell diskutiert, das das verbale Arbeitsgedächtnis als einen Systemverbund auffasst, in dem Aufmerksamkeitskapazitäten, das Sprachsystem und ein Sequenzverarbeitungssystem miteinander verbunden sind. Ausgangspunkt der Überlegungen ist der bekannte Zusammenhang zwischen Kurzzeitgedächtnis und lexikalischer Sprachentwicklung. Mittels Studien aus der Entwicklungspsychologie, der experimentellen Psychologie und der kognitiven Neurowissenschaften wird gezeigt, dass ein großer Teil der Prozesse, die mit Kurzzeitgedächtnistests gemessen werden, durch Aufmerksamkeitskapazitäten und eine Aktivierung des Sprachsystems erklärt werden können. Eine mögliche Ausnahme ist die Verarbeitung zeitlicher Abfolgeinformation. Dies könnte eine spezifische Funktion eines Kurzzeitgedächtnissystems darstellen, die ausschlaggebend ist für das Erlernen verbaler Sequenzen und neuer Wortformen.

Investigating the childhood development of working memory using sentences: new evidence for the growth of chunk capacity

Child development is accompanied by a robust increase in immediate memory. This may be due to either an increase in the number of items (chunks) that can be maintained in working memory or an increase in the size of those chunks. We tested these hypotheses by presenting younger and older children (7 and 12 years of age) and adults with different types of lists of auditory sentences: four short sentences, eight short sentences, four long sentences, and four random word lists, each read with a sentence-like intonation. Young children accessed (recalled words from) fewer clauses than did older children or adults, but no age differences were found in the proportion of words recalled from accessed clauses. We argue that the developmental increase in memory span was due to a growing number of chunks present in working memory with little role of chunk size.