Development
How does working memory develop in primary school children?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Children show rapid working memory improvements between ages 7 and 9 that slow down as they get older, with girls improving faster than boys.
How this study connects
Role on claims
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Children's working memory performance, as measured by the n-back task, improves rapidly between the ages of 7 and 9, with this developmental growth rate slowing down as they approach age 11.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Gender differences exist in working memory development, with primary school-aged girls demonstrating faster rates of performance improvement on the n-back task than boys over a one-year period.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms exhibit lower baseline working memory scores on the n-back task and fail to show the typical age-related improvements in response speed over time.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cohort — Four n-back assessments over one year in a school cohort
- N
- N=2897 · 2,904 enrolled; 7 excluded for reported mental, motor, or sensory impairment; ~50% male
- Population
- Spanish primary-school children (grades 2–4) in a 1-year follow-up
- Outcome
- Age/grade trajectories of n-back working-memory accuracy over one year
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How does working memory develop in primary school children?
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
2897 children in the study sample
Here we studied a sizeable sample of children ( N = 2897) who were assessed four times during a period of 1 year with the n-back task.
1-year study period
Thus, we aimed to study whether repeated administrations of n-back task detect developmental trajectories in schoolchildren during a 1-year follow-up.
Key findings
Working memory performance increased rapidly in children aged 7 to 9, but this growth rate slowed down as children approached age 11. Girls improved faster than boys over the 1-year period, while children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms had lower starting scores and lacked the typical age-related response speed improvements.
Methodology
Researchers tracked 2897 Spanish primary school students over a 1-year period. The children completed a computerized memory task 4 times, once every 3 months, to assess how working memory develops. Teachers also completed ratings of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms for each child.
Limitations
The study cannot rule out all practice effects, meaning some observed improvement could be due to completing the test 4 times rather than true developmental growth. Additionally, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms were reported only by teachers, which leaves out how children behave at home. Finally, 55% of mothers had a university degree, meaning the sample is highly educated and may not represent the general public.
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