What limits children's working memory span? Theoretical accounts and applications for scholastic development.

TLDR

Longitudinal research has examined explanations for children’s working memory span limits. Longer retention intervals lowered reading and operation span, span variability correlated with processing speed, spans explained shared variance in reading and arithmetic (with some domain specificity), combined spans predicted unique variance in scholastic attainment over one year, and the authors concluded that rapid decay of active codes—not resource sharing—constrains working memory span, highlighting its importance for scholastic development.

Abstract

Explanations of working memory span in children were studied in a longitudinal follow-up of J. N. Towse, G. J. Hitch, and U. Hutton (1998). Reading span and operation span were lower when within-task retention intervals were lengthened. For each task, variation in span between test waves and age cohorts was systematically related to changes in processing speed. The two spans explained substantial shared variance in both reading and arithmetic scores, with some evidence for domain specificity. Combined span scores predicted unique variance in scholastic attainment over a 1-year interval. The authors concluded that working memory span is constrained by rapid loss of active codes and is not simply a measure of capacity for resource sharing. Working memory is also implicated in scholastic development.