Are Working Memory Measures Free of Socioeconomic Influence?

Abstract

Purpose: This study evaluated the impact of socio-economic factors on children's performance on tests of working memory and vocabulary.Method: 20 Brazilian children, aged 6 and 7 years from low-income families, completed tests of working memory (verbal short-term memory and verbal complex span) and vocabulary (expressive and receptive). A further group of Brazilian children from families of higher socio-economic status matched for age, sex, and nonverbal ability also participated in the study. Results:Children from the low socio-economic group obtained significantly lower scores on measures of expressive and receptive vocabulary than their higher income peers but no significant group differences were found on the working memory measures. Conclusion:Measures of working memory provide assessments of cognitive abilities that appear to be impervious to substantial differences in socio-economic background. As these measures are highly sensitive to language ability and learning in general, they appear to provide useful methods for diagnosing specific learning difficulties that are independent of environmental opportunity.Keywords: working memory, verbal short-term memory, verbal complex span, vocabulary, socio-economic status 3 Are working memory measures free of socio-economic influence?Scores on assessments of working memory are strongly associated with language learning (Archibald & Gathercole, 2006a;Bishop, North, & Donlan, 1996;Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998) and provide excellent predictors of children's scholastic abilities up to 3 years later (Gathercole, Brown, & Pickering, 2003). One priority in developing tests that can be used in the diagnosis of language impairment and learning difficulties is to ensure that the assessments genuinely measure the child's basic learning abilities rather than reflecting knowledge or prior experience that may vary across individuals. Accordingly, the purpose of the present study is to explore whether measures of working memory are influenced by the child's socio-economic status (SES).Working memory consists of a number of distinct but inter-related components.According to the influential Baddeley and Hitch (1974) model developed subsequently by Baddeley (1986Baddeley ( , 2000, it consists of two specialized temporary stores and two domain-general components, the central executive and the episodic buffer. Verbal material is held in a rapidly-decaying phonological form in the phonological loop, and limited amounts of spatial and visual information are stored in the visuo-spatial sketchpad. The central executive is responsible for the allocation of limited capacity resources that support activities both within and beyond the working memory system. The final component, the episodic buffer, integrates inputs from within working memory and long term memory to form unitary multi-modal representations.The phonological loop appears to play a significant role in supporting vocabulary acquisition with close associations between verbal short-term memory skills and both existing vocab...

Levels of Phonological Awareness, Working Memory, and Lexical Knowledge in Elementary School Children

“…The phonological working memory constitutes an important cognitive component for the acquisition and development of oral language (Baddeley, 2003;Engel, Santos, & Gathercole, 2008). In this context, researchers such as Alloway, Gathercole, Willis and Adams (2004) suggest that phonological awareness is not only affected by the tasks of reading and writing, but also by the development of the working memory abilities and by the refinement of other language abilities, in particular vocabulary, which has been confirmed by various studies (Fukuda et al, 2010;Kibby, 2009;Koo, Crain, LaSasso, & Éden, 2008;Schuchardt, Maehler, & Hasselhorn, 2008;Swanson, Zheng, & Jerman, 2009).…”

“…However, it is possible to verify that their language development was less than expected for the age. These changes may be related to various factors, among them deficient opportunities for learning caused by poor stimulatory environments due to the socioeconomic level, as demonstrated by Engel et al (2008) and McDowell et al (2007).…”

Number Processing and Calculation in Brazilian Children Aged 7-12 Years

“…In contrast, studies showed that working memory is culture free of socioeconomic status and environmental aspects (Engel, Santos, & Gathercole, 2008;Koumoula et al, 2004;Santos & Bueno, 2003;Santos, Mello, Bueno, & Dellatolas, 2005).…”

Treino musical e capacidade da memória operacional em crianças iniciantes, veteranas e sem conhecimentos musicais

“…A AWMA foi adaptada para a língua portuguesa e o desempenho de crianças brasileiras em subtestes verbais não foi influenciado pelo nível socioeconômico (Engel, Santos, & Gathercole, 2008). A vantagem da utilização de testes validados internacionalmente é a possibilidade de identificar características linguísticas, culturais e fatores pedagógicos que podem influenciar o desenvolvimento dos componentes da memória operacional.…”