Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Task experience and children’s working memory performance : a perspective from recall timing.
AU - Towse, John N.
AU - Cowan, Nelson
AU - Horton, Neil
AU - Whytock, Shealagh
N1 - 'This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.'
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Working memory is an important theoretical construct among children, and measures of its capacity predict a range of cognitive skills and abilities. Data from 9- and 11-year-old children illustrate how a chronometric analysis of recall can complement and elaborate recall accuracy in advancing our understanding of working memory. A reading span task was completed by 130 children, 75 of whom were tested on two occasions, with sequence length either increasing or decreasing during test administration. Substantial pauses occur during participants’ recall sequences and they represent consistent performance traits over time, whilst also varying with recall circumstances and task history. Recall pauses help to predict reading and number skills, alongside as well as separate from levels of recall accuracy. The task demands of working memory change as a function of task experience, with a combination of accuracy and response timing in novel task situations being the strongest predictor of cognitive attainment.
AB - Working memory is an important theoretical construct among children, and measures of its capacity predict a range of cognitive skills and abilities. Data from 9- and 11-year-old children illustrate how a chronometric analysis of recall can complement and elaborate recall accuracy in advancing our understanding of working memory. A reading span task was completed by 130 children, 75 of whom were tested on two occasions, with sequence length either increasing or decreasing during test administration. Substantial pauses occur during participants’ recall sequences and they represent consistent performance traits over time, whilst also varying with recall circumstances and task history. Recall pauses help to predict reading and number skills, alongside as well as separate from levels of recall accuracy. The task demands of working memory change as a function of task experience, with a combination of accuracy and response timing in novel task situations being the strongest predictor of cognitive attainment.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=43949124855&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/0012-1649.44.3.695
DO - 10.1037/0012-1649.44.3.695
M3 - Journal article
VL - 44
SP - 695
EP - 706
JO - Developmental Psychology
JF - Developmental Psychology
SN - 0012-1649
IS - 3
ER -