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Age-related differentiation in verbal and visuospatial working memory processing in childhood
Frances Buttelmann1,2, Tanja Könen3,4, Lauren V Hadley5
1Department of Developmental Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany. frances.buttelmann@uni-jena.de.
Psychological Research
|July 14, 2019
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Neuroscience
Background:
- Working memory (WM) is crucial for simultaneous information maintenance and processing.
- WM development continues through childhood, with gains in both verbal and visuospatial WM.
- Verbal and visuospatial WM may follow distinct developmental paths due to differing reliance on internal rehearsal.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate complex verbal working memory (VWM) and visuospatial working memory (VSWM) performance across childhood.
- To examine age-related differences and the differentiation of VWM and VSWM.
Main Methods:
- Latent multi-group modeling was used to analyze VWM and VSWM span task performance.
- Participants included 125 younger children (4-6 years) and 101 older children (8-10 years).
Main Results:
- Older children outperformed younger children on both VWM and VSWM tasks.
- Both age groups showed superior performance in verbal compared to visuospatial WM.
- A two-factor model (verbal and visuospatial WM) provided a better fit than a one-factor model.
- The correlation between verbal and visuospatial WM was higher in younger children, indicating increasing differentiation with age.
Conclusions:
- Working memory processing shows significant age-related differentiation between verbal and visuospatial components during middle childhood.
- These findings enhance the understanding of cognitive development and working memory maturation.
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