Working memory skills and educational attainment: evidence from national curriculum assessments at 7 and 14 years of age

TLDR

The study examined how working memory skills relate to national curriculum assessment performance in English, mathematics, and science among children aged 7 and 14. Working memory scores, particularly from complex span tasks, were strongly linked to attainment in English and mathematics at age 7 and to mathematics and science at age 14, indicating that working memory constrains mathematical and scientific learning but not higher‑level English comprehension at 14. © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Abstract The relationship between working memory skills and performance on national curriculum assessments in English, mathematics and science was explored in groups of children aged 7 and 14 years. At 7 years, children's levels of attainment in both English and mathematics were significantly associated with working memory scores, and in particular with performance on complex span tasks. At 14 years, strong links persisted between the complex working memory test scores and attainments levels in both mathematics and science, although ability in the English assessments showed no strong association with working memory skill. The results suggest that the intellectual operations required in the curriculum areas of mathematics and science are constrained by the general capacity of working memory across the childhood years. However, whereas success in the acquisition in literacy (tapped by the English assessments at the youngest age) was also linked with working memory capacity, achievements in the higher‐level skills of comprehension and analysis of English literature assessed at 14 years were independent of working memory capacity. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.