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Updated: Feb 25, 2026
09:05
Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)
Published on: June 12, 2017
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Differences in brain morphology and working memory capacity across childhood.
Joe Bathelt1, Susan E Gathercole1, Amy Johnson1
1MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK.
Developmental Science
|July 28, 2017
Summary
Brain systems supporting working memory (WM) show developmental shifts in children. Early childhood relies on distributed networks, while later childhood utilizes more specialized brain regions for WM skills.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Working memory (WM) is crucial for learning in reading and math during childhood.
- Understanding the developmental trajectory of brain systems supporting WM is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate developmental changes in the structural brain correlates of working memory components in children.
- To explore how neural substrates underpinning WM evolve throughout childhood.
Main Methods:
- Assessed verbal and visuospatial short-term and working memory in 153 children (5.58–15.92 years).
- Derived latent WM components and analyzed structural brain data (Fractional Anisotropy, cortical thickness) using MRI and eigenanatomy decomposition.
Main Results:
- Younger children showed greater involvement of the corpus callosum and posterior temporal white matter for executive WM.
- Older children's executive WM performance was more associated with occipitotemporal cortex thickness.
- Shifts indicate a move from distributed, long-range connections to specialized local circuitry.
Conclusions:
- The brain systems supporting working memory change significantly during childhood, despite a stable component factor structure.
- Developmental changes involve increasing neural specialization.
- Considering a child's age is critical for understanding working memory limitations.
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