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Updated: Jan 12, 2026
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Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)
Published on: June 12, 2017
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Working memory shapes information sampling and attention allocation across development
Qianqian Wan1, Vladimir M Sloutsky1
1Department of Psychology, Ohio State University.
Journal of Experimental Psychology. General
|November 3, 2025
Summary
Working memory limits guide how people seek information. When working memory is taxed, adults explore more broadly, similar to children, showing memory
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Human Information Processing
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Information sampling strategies change significantly from childhood to adulthood.
- Existing theories on developmental differences in information sampling are insufficient.
- Working memory constraints are hypothesized to underlie broad information sampling in children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of working memory in shaping information sampling strategies.
- To test whether working memory load induces broader information sampling in adults.
- To differentiate between working memory constraints and generalized task impairment.
Main Methods:
- Adult participants performed decision-making and category learning tasks under varying working memory load conditions (dual-task paradigm).
- Information sampling patterns were analyzed under cognitive load.
- Computational modeling was used to assess information encoding and compare with selective attention models.
Main Results:
- Adults under working memory load exhibited broader information sampling patterns, resembling those of young children.
- Task performance remained successful despite increased exploration and distributed attention.
- Computational models indicated broader information encoding under load, not generalized impairment.
Conclusions:
- Working memory limitations causally influence information sampling strategies.
- Developmental shifts in information sampling may be driven by changes in working memory capacity.
- Findings support a working memory constraint model for developmental changes in attention and exploration.
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