Verbal and spatial short-term memory: common sources of developmental change?
Verbal and spatial span, articulation and tapping rate, and verbal and spatial speed-of-search tasks were administered to sixty 6- to 12-year-olds. A variance-partitioning procedure was then used to identify age-related and age-invariant components of variance in span. Outcomes were very similar for verbal and spatial span, in particular, (i) most of the age-related variance was shared by the speed-of-search and rate predictors, (ii) articulation rate provided an age-independent contribution, (iii) changing-state versions of predictor tasks did not account for variance over steady-state versions, and (iv) predictors of the same modality as the span task did not outperform predictors of the other modality. We conclude that verbal and spatial short-term memory appear to rely on similar processes when serial recall is required and that developments in span are closely tied to increases in processing speed.
Chuah
Y M
YM
The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia.lisa@psy.uwa.edu.au
Maybery
M T
MT
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013028:Space Perception; D014706:Verbal Learning