How do selective attentional processes contribute to maintenance and recall in children’s working memory capacity?

Roome, Hannah E. and Towse, John and Jarrold, Christopher (2014) How do selective attentional processes contribute to maintenance and recall in children’s working memory capacity? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8. ISSN 1662-5161

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Abstract

The development of working memory capacity is considered from the perspective of the active maintenance of items in primary memory (PM) and a cue-dependent search component, secondary memory (SM). Using, free recall, plus a more novel serial interleaved items task, age-related increases in PM estimates were evident in both paradigms. In addition to this, age-related improvements in attentional selectivity were observed, indexed by the recall of target and non-target information respectively. To further characterize PM, presentation modality was varied in the serial interleaved items task (auditory, visual and dual presentation). Developmental differences were found in the effectiveness of presentation formats. Older children’s recall was enhanced by the combination of labeled visual items and enduring auditory information, whilst the same format was detrimental to younger children’s recall of target information. The present results show how estimates of PM and SM in children relate to the development of working memory capacity, but measurement of these constructs in children is not straightforward. Data also points to age related changes in selective attention, which in turn contributes to children’s ability to process and maintain information in working memory.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Additional Information:
© 2014 Roome, Towse and Jarrold. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
ID Code:
71978
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
01 Dec 2014 16:11
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
20 Sep 2023 00:39