title: What limits children's working memory span? Theoretical accounts and applications for scholastic development.
abstract: Explanations of working memory span in children were studied in a longitudinal follow-up of J. N. Towse, G. J. Hitch, and U. Hutton (1998). Reading span and operation span were lower when within-task retention intervals were lengthened. For each task, variation in span between test waves and age cohorts was systematically related to changes in processing speed. The two spans explained substantial shared variance in both reading and arithmetic scores, with some evidence for domain specificity. Combined span scores predicted unique variance in scholastic attainment over a 1-year interval. The authors concluded that working memory span is constrained by rapid loss of active codes and is not simply a measure of capacity for resource sharing. Working memory is also implicated in scholastic development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom. Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YF, United Kingdom. g.hitch@psych.york.ac.uk
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Hitch
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Towse
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hutton
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D011939:Mental Recall; D011932:Reading; D012016:Reference Values; D012153:Retention, Psychology