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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 5, 2025

Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)

Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)

Published on: June 12, 2017

Play First Before Doing Your Exercise: Does Acting in a Game-Like Task Improve 5-Year-Olds' Working Memory

Christophe Fitamen^1,2, Valérie Camos¹

¹Département de Psychologie, Université de Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.

Frontiers in Psychology

|May 17, 2021

Summary

Engaging in game-like activities may enhance preschoolers' working memory, especially when followed by structured exercises. This suggests that playful learning can prime cognitive skills for subsequent tasks.

Keywords:

action game goal cue preschoolers working memory

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Last Updated: Nov 5, 2025

Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)

Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)

Published on: June 12, 2017

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children

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Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment

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Published on: September 20, 2020

Area of Science:

Cognitive Development
Developmental Psychology

Background:

Preschoolers' working memory can be improved by game-like tasks.
Game contexts and motor activities may offer goal cues supporting memory.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if a game-like task enhances working memory compared to an exercise-like task in preschoolers.
To determine the influence of goal cues in game-like versus exercise-like contexts on memory performance.

Main Methods:

Five-year-old children participated in either a game-like or an exercise-like task involving memorizing series of fruits and vegetables.
Tasks were presented in a within-subject design, with memory tested via oral recall or reconstruction (between-subject).

Main Results:

No significant difference in memory performance between game and exercise conditions across memory test types.
Performance was lower in the game-like condition when preceded by the exercise condition.
No performance difference emerged when the game condition was presented first.

Conclusions:

Preschoolers can leverage the game-like condition to integrate task requirements beneficial for subsequent exercise performance.
The order of task presentation significantly impacts working memory outcomes in preschoolers.