The present study explored the effects of cognitive demand upon relationships between working memory and cognitive skills. Both children and adults were tested on a measure of short-term memory and three measures of counting span, which varied in cognitive demand. When statistically controlling for short-term memory and the speed of counting operations, the more demanding the counting-span task, the closer its relationship with cognitive skills. The results are discussed in terms of practical and theoretical implications for working memory research.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AndersonJ. R. (1993). The rules of the mindHillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
2.
AndersonJ. R.FinchamJ. M.DouglassS. (1997). The role of examples and rules in the acquisition of a complex skill.Journal of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Memory, and Cognition23, 932–945.
3.
BaddeleyA. D. (1990). Human memory: Theory and practiceHove, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd.
4.
BaddeleyA. D.HitchG. (1974). Working memory.The psychology of learning and motivation. BowerG. H.New York: Academic Press.
5.
BaddeleyA. D.LogieR.Nimmo-SmithL.BreretonN. (1985). Components of fluent reading.Journal of Memory and Language24, 119–131.
6.
BarrouilletP.BernardinS.CamosV. (2004). Time constraints and resource sharing in adults’ working memory spans.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General133, 83–100.
7.
BarrouilletP.CamosV. (2001). Developmental increase in working memory span: Resource sharing or temporal decay?.Journal of Memory and Language45, 1–20.
8.
BaylissD. M.JarroldC.BaddeleyA. D.GunnD. M. (2005). The relationship between short-term memory and working memory: Complex span made simple?.Memory13, 414–421.
9.
BaylissD. M.JarroldC.GunnD. M.BaddeleyA. D. (2003). The complexities of complex span: Explaining individual differences in working memory in children and adults.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General132, 71–92.
10.
BeckwithM.RestleF. (1966). Process of enumeration.Psychological Review73, 437–444.
11.
BullR.ScerifG. (2001). Executive functioning as a predictor of children's mathematical ability: Inhibition, switching and working memory.Developmental Neuropsychology19, 273–293.
12.
CamosV. (2003). Coordination processes in counting.International Journal of Psychology38, 24–36.
13.
CamosV.BarrouilletP. (2004). Adult counting is resource demanding.British Journal of Psychology95, 19–30.
14.
CamosV.FayolM.BarrouilletP. (1999). Counting in children: Double task or procedure.L'Annee Psychologique99, 623–645.
15.
CamosV.BarrouilletP.FayolM. (2001). Does the coordination of verbal and motor information explain the development of counting in children.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology78, 240–262.
16.
CaseR. (1985). Intellectual development: Birth to adulthoodNew York: Academic Press.
17.
CaseR.KurlandD. M.GoldbergJ. (1982). Operational efficiency and the growth of short-term memory span.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology33, 386–404.
18.
ConwayA. R. A.EngleR. W. (1996). Individual differences in working memory capacity: More evidence for a general capacity theory.Memory4, 577–590.
19.
DanemanM.CarpenterP. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour19, 450–466.
20.
DanemanM.MerickleP. M. (1996). Working memory and language comprehension: A meta-analysis.Psychonomic Bulletin and Review3, 422–433.
21.
De RammelaereS.StuyvenE.VandieredonckA. (2001). Verifying simple arithmetic sums and products: Are the phonological loop and central executive involved?.Memory and Cognition29, 267–273.
22.
DeStefanoD.LeFevreJ. (2004). The role of working memory in mental arithmetic.European Journal of Cognitive Psychology16, 353–386.
23.
DuncanJ. (1987). Attention and reading: Wholes and parts in shape recognition—a tutorial review.Attention and performance: XII. The psychology of reading. ColtheartM.Hove, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc39–62.
24.
EngleR. W.CantorJ.CarulloJ. J. (1992). Individual differences in working memory and comprehension: A test of four hypotheses.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition18, 972–992.
25.
EngleR. W.TuholskiS. W.LaughlinJ. E.ConwayA. R. A. (1999). Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: A latent variable approach.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General128, 309–331.
26.
FriedmanN. P.MiyakeA. (2004). The reading span test and its predictive power for reading comprehension.Journal of Memory and Language31, 136–158.
27.
GathercoleS. E. (1998). The development of memory.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry39, 3–27.
28.
GathercoleS. E.PickeringS. J. (2000). Working memory deficits in children with low achievement in the national curriculum at 7 years of age.British Journal of Educational Psychology70, 177–194.
29.
GathercoleS. E.PickeringS. J.KnightC.StegmannZ. (2004). Working memory skills and educational attainment: Evidence from national curriculum assessments at 7 and 14 years of age.Applied Cognitive Psychology18, 1–16.
30.
HalfordG. C. (1993). Children's understandingHove, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
31.
HitchG. J.TowseJ. N.HuttonU. (2001). What limits children's working memory span: Theoretical accounts and applications for scholastic development.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General130, 184–198.
32.
JarvisH. L.GathercoleS. E. (2003). Verbal and nonverbal working memory and achievements on national curriculum tests at 11 and 14 years of age.Educational and Child Psychology20, 123–140.
33.
KailR. (1992). Processing speed, speech rate, and memory.Developmental Psychology28, 899–904.
34.
KailR.ParkY. A. (1994). Processing time, articulation time and memory span.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology57, 281–291.
35.
LepineR.BarrouilletP.CamosV. (2005). What makes working memory spans so predictive of higher level cognition?.Psychonomic Bulletin and Review12, 165–170.
36.
Pascual LeoneJ. (1988). Organismic processes for neo-Piagetian theories: An account of cognitive reasoning.The neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development: Toward an integration. DemetriouA.Amsterdam: Holland.
37.
PickeringS.GathercoleS. (2001). Working Memory Test Battery for ChildrenLondon: The Psychological Corporation (WMTB-C).
38.
PotterM. C.LevyE. I. (1968). Spatial enumeration without counting.Child Development39, 265–272.
SeitzK.Schumann-HengstelerR. (2000). Mental multiplication and working memory.European Journal of Cognitive Psychology12, 552–570.
41.
ShahP.MiyakeA. (1996). The separability of working memory resources for spatial thinking and language processing: An individual differences approach.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General125, 4–27.
42.
St Clair-ThompsonH. L.GathercoleE. S. (2006). Executive functions and achievements in school: Shifting, updating, inhibition, and working memory.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology59A, 745–759.
43.
TowseJ. N.HitchG. J. (1995). Is there a relationship between task demand and storage space in test of working memory capacity?.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology48A, 108–124.
44.
TowseJ. N.HitchG. J. (1997). Integrating information in object counting: A role for a central coordination process?.Cognitive Development12, 393–422.
45.
TowseJ. N.HitchG. J.HuttonU. (1998). A re-evaluation of working memory capacity in children.Journal of Memory and Language39, 195–217.
46.
TowseJ. N.HitchG. J.HuttonU. (2000). On the interpretation of working memory span in adults.Memory and Cognition28, 341–348.
47.
TowseJ. N.HitchG. J.HuttonU. (2002). On the nature of the relationship between processing activity and item retention in children.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology82, 156–184.
48.
TreismanA. M. (1991). Search, similarity, and integration of features between and within dimensions.Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Perception and Performance12, 652–676.
49.
TreismanA. M.GeladeG. (1980). A feature-integration theory of attention.Cognitive Psychology12, 97–136.
50.
TreismanA. M.SatoS. (1990). Conjunction search revisited.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance16, 459–478.
51.
Turley-AmesK. J.WhitfieldM. M. (2003). Strategy training and working memory task performance.Journal of Memory and Language49, 446–468.
52.
TurnerM. L.EngleR. W. (1989). Is working memory capacity task dependent?.Journal of Memory and Language28, 127–154.
53.
WatersG. S.CaplanD. (1992). The capacity theory of sentence comprehension: Critique of Just & Carpenter.Psychological Review103, 761–772.
54.
WiederholtJ. L.BlalockG. (2000). The Gray Silent Reading TestAustin, TX: Pro-Ed.
55.
WilkinsonG. S. (1993). The Wide Range Achievement TestWilmington, DE: Wide Range, Inc.
