Roberts Gehan, Quach Jon, Mensah Fiona, Gathercole Susan, Gold Lisa, Anderson Peter, Spencer-Smith Megan, Wake Melissa
*Population Health, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia; †Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; ‡Centre for Community Child Health, The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia; §MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, United Kingdom; ‖Deakin Health Economics, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; ¶School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2015 Feb-Mar;36(2):68-74. doi: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000121.
Low working memory (WM) is strongly linked with poor academic outcomes. WM capacity increases across childhood but how exposure to school is associated with WM development is not known. We aimed to determine extent to which chronological age and schooling duration are associated with WM at the population level.
In 2012, children in Grade 1 (the second year of formal schooling in Victoria, Australia) from 44 schools in metropolitan Melbourne were recruited. Assessments occurred over the entire school year, with schools quasi-randomly allocated to one of the 4 school terms. WM (primary outcome) was measured using 2 subtests from the computerized Automated Working Memory Assessment: Backwards Digit Recall (verbal) and Mister X (visuospatial). Linear regression was used to examine relationships of WM with time in school and age.
Of the 1765 who provided consent, 1727 children (97.9%) had WM assessed throughout the 2012 school year. WM scores became steadily higher over the course of the year. Thus, scores were .77 and .53 SDs higher in Term 4 than Term 1 for verbal and visuospatial WM, respectively (p values for trend for both scores <.001); conclusions were unchanged when adjusted for age and potential confounders. Conversely, age associations attenuated fully once adjusted for school duration.
Our results demonstrate, for the first time, that the developmental increases in WM are strongly associated with time spent in the classroom, above and beyond chronological age.
低工作记忆与学业成绩不佳密切相关。工作记忆容量在整个童年期都会增加，但接触学校教育与工作记忆发展之间的关联尚不清楚。我们旨在确定在人群层面上，实际年龄和在校学习时间与工作记忆之间的关联程度。
2012年，从墨尔本市区44所学校招募了一年级学生（澳大利亚维多利亚州正式上学的第二年）。评估在整个学年进行，学校被准随机分配到四个学期中的一个。使用计算机化自动工作记忆评估中的两个子测试来测量工作记忆（主要结果）：倒序数字回忆（言语）和X先生（视觉空间）。使用线性回归来检验工作记忆与在校时间和年龄之间的关系。
在1765名同意参与的学生中，有1727名儿童（97.9%）在2012学年接受了工作记忆评估。在这一年中，工作记忆分数稳步提高。因此，在第四学期，言语和视觉空间工作记忆的分数分别比第一学期高0.77和0.53个标准差（两个分数的趋势p值均<.001）；在调整年龄和潜在混杂因素后，结论不变。相反，一旦调整了在校学习时间，年龄与工作记忆的关联就完全减弱了。
我们的结果首次表明，工作记忆的发展性增长与在课堂上花费的时间密切相关，这一关联超出了实际年龄的影响。
