WM has a foundational role in many critical components of cognitive development, including controlled attention, reasoning, organization, and speech and language functioning ( Baddeley, Gathercole, & Papagno, 1998 Baddeley & Hitch, 1974 Cowan, 2005 Engle, 2002). Working memory (WM) is a construct that refers to the ability to retain and manipulate information during a short period of time ( Klingberg, Forssberg, & Westerberg, 2002). The results of this study demonstrate that the MST is a feasible and valid methodology for assessing WMC in preschool children as young 3 years of age. MSTscores still remained significantly correlated with the other measures of memory even after age and global language were accounted for in a regression analysis, demonstrating that the MST captures unique variance related specifically to WMC and cognitive control processes used to retrieve and scan information in short-term memory (STM). Significant correlations were also found between the MST and language and verbal and nonverbal memory scores.
Children showed increased working memory capacity scores with age, as measured by the MST, with significant differences between 3- and 5-year-olds and 3- and 6-year-olds. The children were tested on measures of WMC (MST), verbal and nonverbal memory (NEPSY Narrative Memory and Memory for Designs subtests), and language skills (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, fourth edition). Forty typically developing monolingual English-speaking children between 36 and 84 months in age participated in the study. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility and validity of a modified version of Buschke’s missing scan methodology, the Missing Scan Task (MST), to assess working memory capacity (WMC) and cognitive control processes in preschool children 3–6 years in age.
0 kommentar(er)
