This study explored the structure of verbal and visuospatial short-term and working memory in children between ages 4 and 11 years. Multiple tasks measuring 4 different memory components were used to capture the cognitive processes underlying working memory. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the processing component of working memory tasks was supported by a common resource pool, while storage aspects depend on domain-specific verbal and visuospatial resources. This model is largely stable across this developmental period, although some evidence exists that the links between the domain-specific visuospatial construct and the domain-general processing construct were higher in the 4-to-6-year age group. The data also suggest that all working memory components are in place by 4 years of age.

a b s t r a c tThere is growing evidence for the relationship between working memory and academic attainment. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether working memory is simply a proxy for IQ or whether there is a unique contribution to learning outcomes. The findings indicate that children's working memory skills at 5 years of age were the best predictor of literacy and numeracy 6 years later. IQ, in contrast, accounted for a smaller portion of unique variance to these learning outcomes. The results demonstrate that working memory is not a proxy for IQ but rather represents a dissociable cognitive skill with unique links to academic attainment. Critically, we find that working memory at the start of formal education is a more powerful predictor of subsequent academic success than IQ. This result has important implications for education, particularly with respect to intervention.Ó 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. IntroductionWorking memory, our ability to process and remember information, is linked to a range of cognitive activities from reasoning tasks to verbal comprehension (Kane & Engle, 2002). Working memory is composed of multiple components whose coordinated activity is responsible for the temporary storage and manipulation of information. According to one widely used model, working memory is a domain-general component responsible for the control of attention and processing that is involved in a range of regulatory functions, including the retrieval of information from long-term memory (Baddeley, 2000). This model also includes two domain-specific stores responsible for the temporary storage of verbal and visuospatial information and has been supported in studies of children (Alloway, 0022-0965/$ -see front matter Ó

This study investigated associations between working memory (measured by complex memory tasks) and both reading and mathematics abilities, as well as the possible mediating factors of Xuid intelligence, verbal abilities, short-term memory (STM), and phonological awareness, in a sample of 46 6- to 11-year-olds with reading disabilities. As a whole, the sample was characterized by deWcits in complex memory and visuospatial STM and by low IQ scores; language, phonological STM, and phonological awareness abilities fell in the low average range. Severity of reading diYculties within the sample was signiWcantly associated with complex memory, language, and phonological awareness abilities, whereas poor mathematics abilities were linked with complex memory, phonological STM, and phonological awareness scores. These Wndings suggest that working memory skills indexed by complex memory tasks represent an important constraint on the acquisition of skill and knowledge in reading and mathematics. Possible mechanisms for the contribution of working memory to learning, and the implications for educational practice, are considered

The aim of this study was to investigate the functional organisation of working memory and related cognitive abilities in young children. A sample of 633 children aged between 4 and 6 years were tested on measures of verbal short-term memory, complex memory span, sentence repetition, phonological awareness, and nonverbal ability. The measurement model that provided the best fit of the data incorporates constructs that correspond to the central executive, phonological loop, and episodic buffer subcomponents of working memory, plus distinct but associated constructs associated with phonological awareness and nonverbal ability.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the construct stability and diagnostic validity of a standardised computerised tool for assessing working memory: the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA). The purpose of the AWMA is to provide educators with a quick and effective tool to screen for and support those with memory impairments. Findings indicate that working memory skills in children with memory impairments are relatively stable over the course of the school year. There was also a high degree of convergence in performance between the AWMA and the WISC-IV Working Memory Index. The educational implications are discussed

This study explored the cognitive and behavioral profiles of children with working memory impairments. In an initial screening of 3,189 5-11-year-olds, 308 were identified as having very low working memory scores. Cognitive skills (IQ, vocabulary, reading, and math), classroom behavior, and self-esteem were assessed. The majority of the children struggled in the learning measures and verbal ability. They also obtained atypically high ratings of cognitive problems ⁄ inattentive symptoms, and were judged to have short attention spans, high levels of distractibility, problems in monitoring the quality of their work, and difficulties in generating new solutions to problems. These data provide rich new information on the cognitive and behavioral profiles that characterize children with low working memory.Working memory is a multicomponent system providing temporary storage of information for brief periods of time that can be used to support ongoing cognitive activities (Baddeley, 1986;Baddeley & Hitch, 1974). The limited capacity of working memory varies widely between individuals and is closely associated with learning abilities during childhood (see Cowan & Alloway, in press; for a review). A large body of research has focused on working memory deficits in individuals with learning difficulties in reading (e.g., Gathercole, Alloway, Willis, & Adams, 2006a;Gathercole, Lamont, & Alloway, 2006b;Siegel & Ryan, 1989;Swanson, 2003), mathematics (Bull & Scerif, 2001;Geary, Hoard, Byrd-Craven, & DeSoto, 2004;Gersten, Jordan, & Flojo, 2005), language (e.g., Archibald & Gathercole, 2006b;Ellis Weismer et al., 2000;Montgomery, 2000), and attention (Barkley, 1997;Martinussen & Tannock, 2006). In this research tradition, the area of learning difficulty (reading, language, etc.) represents the primary impairment by which the children are identified, and any working memory deficits are secondary, associated characteristics. As a result, little is known about the consequences of low working memory capacity per se, independent of other associated learning difficulties. In particular, it is not known either what proportion of children with low working memory capacities have significant learning difficulties of these different kinds or what their behavioral characteristics are. The purpose of the present study is to redress this situation by providing the first systematic large-scale examination of the cognitive and behavioral characteristics of school-aged children who have been identified solely on the basis of very low working memory scores.The dominant conceptualization of working memory is of a system comprising multiple components whose coordinated activity provides the capacity for the temporary storage and manipulation of information in a variety of domains. According to Baddeley's (2000) revision of the influential Baddeley and Hitch (1974) model, working memory consists of four limited capacity elements. The central executive is a domain-general component responsible for the control of attention and processing that is invol...

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This study investigates whether working memory skills of children are related to teacher ratings of their progress towards learning goals at the time of school entry, at 4 or 5 years of age. A sample of 194 children was tested on measures of working memory, phonological awareness, and non-verbal ability, in addition to the school-based baseline assessments in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics, speaking and listening, and personal and social development. Various aspects of cognitive functioning formed unique associations with baseline assessments; for example complex memory span with rated writing skills, phonological short-term memory with both reading and speaking and listening skills, and sentence repetition scores with both mathematics and personal and social skills. Rated reading skills were also uniquely associated with phonological awareness scores. The findings indicate that the capacity to store and process material over short periods of time, referred to as working memory, and also the awareness of phonological structure, may play a crucial role in key learning areas for children at the beginning of formal education.From 1998 to 2002, all state primary schools in England assessed children's abilities as they entered full-time education at 4 or 5 years of age. Each local educational authority was responsible for administering an accredited baseline assessment scheme that measured the children's progress towards early learning goals in domains such as language, literacy, mathematics, and physical and creative development (School Curriculum and Assessment Authority/The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, 1997).The aim of the present study was to relate these early indicators of children's skills in key scholastic domains to working memory abilities. Recent work has established close