Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

The development of memory and processing capacity

G S Halford1, M T Maybery, A W O'Hare

  • 1Psychology Department, University of Queensland, Australia.

Child Development
|October 1, 1994
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Evaluating the impact of dose reductions and delays on progression-free survival in women with ovarian cancer treated with either three-weekly or dose-dense carboplatin and paclitaxel regimens in the national prospective OPAL cohort study.

Gynecologic oncology·2020
Same author

Development of the R263K Mutation to Dolutegravir in an HIV-1 Subtype D Virus Harboring 3 Class-Drug Resistance.

Open forum infectious diseases·2019
Same author

Caring for a patient with rabies: implications of the Milwaukee protocol for infection control and public health measures.

The Journal of hospital infection·2017
Same author

An ultra-high gain and efficient amplifier based on Raman amplification in plasma.

Scientific reports·2017
Same author

Improved quality of risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy in Australasian women at high risk of pelvic serous cancer.

Familial cancer·2017
Same author

Operative Outcomes with Myxomatous Mitral Valve Repair: Experience with 586 Patients.

Heart, lung & circulation·2016
Same journal

Comprehension of "can" predicts performance on a nonverbal measure of modal concepts at 48 but not 36 months.

Child development·2026
Same journal

An associative learning account of how saliva becomes a cue for comfort.

Child development·2026
Same journal

If moms do it, it can't be that important: Children's reasoning about gender disparities in domestic work.

Child development·2026
Same journal

Adapting under stress: How sociocultural stress intensity and fluctuation shape youth school engagement and internalizing symptoms.

Child development·2026
Same journal

Children across diverse societies exchange reasons to resolve disagreements.

Child development·2026
Same journal

Beyond resources: Children in India and Germany have a multifaceted concept of fairness.

Child development·2026
See all related articles

Short-term memory span and working memory processing capacity are distinct cognitive systems. This finding challenges developmental theories and clarifies working memory development in children.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Developmental theories often assume short-term memory (STM) serves as the workspace for higher cognitive processes, implying span measures processing capacity.
  • This assumption is questioned by the working memory (WM) literature, which suggests distinct components for storage and processing.
  • Understanding the relationship between STM span and WM processing capacity is crucial for accurate models of cognitive development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether short-term memory span directly reflects the processing capacity component of working memory.
  • To contrast a unitary model of memory/processing with a dual-component model of working memory in children.
  • To examine developmental trends in the relationship between STM and WM processing across childhood.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Methods:

  • Four experiments were conducted with children aged 5 to 12 years.
  • Experiments manipulated processing load while holding duration constant, and examined information loss from STM with age.
  • Measures included short-term memory recall, processing load, counting speed, rehearsal rates, and age-related differences.

Main Results:

  • Increased processing load had minimal impact on short-term memory recall.
  • Older children's enhanced processing efficiency did not correlate with slower information loss from short-term memory.
  • While counting and rehearsal rates increased with age and correlated with span, they did not predict memory loss rates.

Conclusions:

  • Short-term memory span and the processing space of working memory represent distinct cognitive systems.
  • Short-term memory span measures do not provide a clear indication of overall working memory development.
  • The findings support a model where STM and WM processing capacity are at least partly separate entities.