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Updated: Jul 5, 2026
09:05
Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)
Published on: June 12, 2017
Working memory and the organization of brain systems
Yael Shrager1, Daniel A Levy, Ramona O Hopkins
1University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
Summary
Working memory, or active maintenance, remains intact after medial temporal lobe damage. This study differentiates working memory from long-term memory reliance in amnesic patients.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuropsychology
Background:
- Working memory is traditionally considered independent of long-term memory and the medial temporal lobe.
- Amnesic patients with medial temporal lobe damage sometimes show impaired performance over short intervals, questioning this independence.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a method for identifying working memory function independent of patient performance.
- To investigate the role of working memory in amnesic patients with medial temporal lobe damage.
Main Methods:
- Compared patients with medial temporal lobe damage to control participants.
- Introduced distraction between study and test phases in four experiments.
- Analyzed performance concordance between patients and the effect of distraction on controls.
Main Results:
- Patients were impaired on tasks minimally reliant on working memory (substantial long-term memory dependence).
- Patients performed well on tasks substantially dependent on working memory.
- Patient performance aligned with the impact of distraction on control participants.
Conclusions:
- Working memory (active maintenance) is intact following medial temporal lobe damage.
- The findings challenge the notion that medial temporal lobe structures are essential for working memory.
- A novel method allows for the dissociation of working memory from long-term memory contributions.
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