Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
Dev Sci. 2011 Sep;14(5):1066-74. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01060.x. Epub 2011 Jun 18.
Why does visual working memory performance increase with age in childhood? One recent study (Cowan et al., 2010b) ruled out the possibility that the basic cause is a tendency in young children to clutter working memory with less-relevant items (within a concurrent array, colored items presented in one of two shapes). The age differences in memory performance, however, theoretically could result from inadequate encoding of the briefly presented array items by younger children. We replicated the key part of the procedure in children 6-8 and 11-13 years old and college students (total N = 90), but with a much slower, sequential presentation of the items to ensure adequate encoding. We also required verbal responses during encoding to encourage or discourage labeling of item information. Although verbal labeling affected performance, age differences persisted across labeling conditions, further supporting the existence of a basic growth in capacity.
为什么儿童的视觉工作记忆表现会随着年龄的增长而提高？最近的一项研究（Cowan 等人，2010b）排除了这样一种可能性，即年轻儿童的基本原因是他们倾向于在工作记忆中添加不太相关的项目（在同时呈现的数组中，以两种形状之一呈现的彩色项目）。然而，记忆表现上的年龄差异理论上可能是由于年幼的孩子对短暂呈现的数组项目的编码不足。我们在 6-8 岁、11-13 岁和大学生（总 N=90）中复制了该程序的关键部分，但以更慢的顺序呈现项目，以确保充分编码。我们还要求在编码过程中进行口头反应，以鼓励或阻止对项目信息的标记。尽管口头标记会影响表现，但在标记条件下，年龄差异仍然存在，这进一步支持了能力的基本增长。
