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Schooling duration rather than chronological age predicts working memory between 6 and 7 years: Memory Maestros Study
Gehan Roberts1, Jon Quach, Fiona Mensah
1*Population Health, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia; †Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; ‡Centre for Community Child Health, The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia; §MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, United Kingdom; ‖Deakin Health Economics, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; ¶School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics : JDBP
|January 8, 2015
Summary
Schooling significantly boosts working memory (WM) development in children. Increased time in the classroom, rather than just age, is linked to better verbal and visuospatial WM skills.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- Low working memory (WM) capacity is a significant predictor of poor academic achievement.
- While WM capacity naturally increases during childhood, the specific impact of formal schooling on this development remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between chronological age and schooling duration with working memory (WM) at a population level.
- To determine the extent to which time spent in school influences WM development in children.
Main Methods:
- Recruited 1727 first-grade children from 44 schools in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia.
- Assessed working memory (WM) using computerized verbal (Backwards Digit Recall) and visuospatial (Mister X) subtests.
- Employed linear regression to analyze the relationship between WM, chronological age, and duration of schooling over the academic year.
Main Results:
- Working memory (WM) scores demonstrated a consistent increase throughout the school year, with significant gains observed from Term 1 to Term 4.
- Verbal WM scores were 0.77 SDs higher and visuospatial WM scores were 0.53 SDs higher in Term 4 compared to Term 1 (p < .001).
- The positive association between age and WM attenuated completely when adjusted for school duration, highlighting the impact of schooling.
Conclusions:
- Developmental increases in children's working memory (WM) are significantly associated with the amount of time spent in formal classroom settings.
- The findings indicate that schooling duration is a more critical factor in WM development than chronological age alone.
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