Working memory span development: a time-based resource-sharing model account.
The time-based resource-sharing model (P. Barrouillet, S. Bernardin, & V. Camos, 2004) assumes that during complex working memory span tasks, attention is frequently and surreptitiously switched from processing to reactivate decaying memory traces before their complete loss. Three experiments involving children from 5 to 14 years of age investigated the role of this reactivation process in developmental differences in working memory spans. Though preschoolers seem to adopt a serial control without any attempt to refresh stored items when engaged in processing, the reactivation process is efficient from age 7 onward and increases in efficiency until late adolescence, underpinning a sizable part of developmental differences.
Barrouillet
Pierre
P
Department of Psychology, Universite de Geneve, Geneve, Switzerland. Pierre.Barrouillet@pse.unige.ch
Gavens
Nathalie
N
Vergauwe
Evie
E
Gaillard
Vinciane
V
Camos
Valérie
V
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011930:Reaction Time; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D012691:Serial Learning