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Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)
Published on: June 12, 2017
The development of strategy use in elementary school children: working memory and individual differences
Ineke Imbo1, André Vandierendonck
1Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. ineke.imbo@ugent.be
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|October 19, 2006
Summary
Working memory is crucial for children's math strategy development, with its demands changing as they mature. Efficient math skills and strategies reduce the need for working memory, but short-term memory capacity itself isn't linked to math strategy choices.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Educational Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Working memory plays a key role in cognitive tasks, including mathematical problem-solving.
- Understanding how working memory involvement evolves with age is critical for educational interventions.
- Previous research suggests a link between working memory and arithmetic skills, but developmental trajectories need further exploration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental changes in working memory's role in children's arithmetic strategy selection.
- To examine how working memory capacity influences the efficiency of different arithmetic strategies.
- To identify factors that modulate the relationship between working memory and arithmetic strategy use in children.
Main Methods:
- Employed a dual-task method combined with choice/no-choice paradigms to assess working memory demands during arithmetic tasks.
- Administered the experiment to a cohort of 10- to 12-year-old children.
- Measured strategy selection, strategy efficiency, and working memory capacity.
Main Results:
- Working memory was implicated in retrieval, transformation, and counting strategies, with its relative demand changing developmentally.
- Increased retrieval strategy use, enhanced memory retrieval efficiency, and more proficient counting processes decreased working memory load.
- Individual differences like processing speed, arithmetic skill, gender, and math anxiety influenced strategy selection and efficiency.
Conclusions:
- Working memory requirements for arithmetic strategies adapt throughout development.
- Strategy optimization and individual cognitive profiles significantly impact working memory load during mathematical tasks.
- Short-term memory capacity alone does not predict children's arithmetic strategy selection or efficiency.
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