Department of Health Sciences Faculty Articles

Time and Resource Limits on Working Memory: Cross-Age Consistency in Counting Span Performance

Document Type

Article

Publisher

Academic Press

ISSN

1096-0457

Publication Date

12-2003

Keywords

Counting Span, Memory Capacity, Memory Decay, Working Memory

Abstract

This longitudinal study separated resource demand effects from those of retention interval in a counting span task among 100 children tested in grade 2 and again in grades 3 and 4. A last card large counting span condition had an equivalent memory load to a last card small, but the last card large required holding the count over a longer retention interval. In all three waves of assessment, the last card large condition was found to be less accurate than the last card small. A model predicting reading comprehension showed that age was a significant predictor when entered first accounting for 26% of the variance, but counting span accounted for a further 22% of the variance. Span at Wave 1 accounted for significant unique variance at Wave 2 and at Wave 3. Results were similar for math calculation with age accounting for 31% of the variance and counting span accounting for a further 34% of the variance. Span at Wave 1 explained unique variance in math at Wave 2 and at Wave 3.

DOI

10.1016/j.jecp.2003.08.002

Volume

86

Issue

4

First Page

303

Last Page

313

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

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