1-140 - What is working memory, and how and why does it develop in children?

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Working memory – the ability to hold in mind information in the face of distraction to guide behavior – predicts academic attainment in adults and children. Understanding the factors that drive working memory development in children therefore has both theoretical and practical implications. In this symposium we address these implications in four papers that are informed by the most recent theoretical developments in the area. These papers have in common the use of novel experimental tasks, and analytic approaches to the processes involved in working memory development.
We ask whether the link between working memory performance and academic attainment reflects the involvement of a single cognitive resource or distinguishable subcomponents of the working memory system operating concurrently. We ask the related question of how one should measure working memory capacity, and the extent to which task performance is influenced by additional factors. These include the child’s developing knowledge of the memoranda, their ability to impose attentional control in order to filter out and maintain irrelevant vs. relevant material respectively, and the influence of different temporal presentation schedules in working memory tasks. We focus on the mechanisms that might be used to support children’s working memory performance, and in particular the extent to which children can use free time to consolidate just-presented information or to engage in the attentional maintenance of the memoranda. In doing so we ask whether the use of these processes in young children differs in either quantitative or qualitative terms from that employed by older children and adults.

Sub Unit

• Attention, Learning, Memory

Chair

• Chris Jarrold, Bristol University

Individual Presentations

• Unraveling the Link Between Working Memory and Classroom Achievement - Debbora Hall, University of Bristol; Presenting Author: Chris Jarrold, Bristol University; John N Towse, University of Lancaster; Amy Zarandi, University of Bristol; Naomi Mackett, University of Bristol

• Why Does Working Memory Capacity Increase With Childhood Development? - Presenting Author: Nelson Cowan, University of Missouri, Columbia

• The Impact of Consolidation on Children’s Working Memory Performance - Presenting Author: Donna M Bayliss, University of Western Australia; Chris Jarrold, Bristol University

• The Role of Attention in Preschoolers’ Working Memory - Presenting Author: Valérie Camos, University of Fribourg; Raphaëlle Bertrand, Université de Bourgogne