The development of non-spatial working memory capacity during childhood and adolescence and the role of interference control: an N-Back task study.
To investigate the role of interference control on the development of working memory (WM) capacity, 6-12-year-old children and adults performed an N-Back task with differing WM-load and interference control demands. Correlation analyses between flanker interference scores and WM-load levels showed that interference control was only required in the 2-back condition. While WM maintenance (1-back task) reached adult accuracy levels at age 10-12, the ability to maintain information in WM during distraction (2-back-task) displayed protracted maturation into adolescence. This is suggested to reflect yet immature connections between prefrontal and posterior association areas, respectively involved in interference control and WM storage.
Schleepen
Tamara M J
TM
Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands. tamara.schleepen@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Jonkman
Lisa M
LM
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D055815:Young Adult