Lendínez Cristina, Pelegrina Santiago, Lechuga M Teresa
Department of Psychology, University of Jaén, Spain.
Department of Psychology, University of Jaén, Spain.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2015 May;157:106-13. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2015.02.015. Epub 2015 Mar 7.
Working memory updating (WMU) tasks require different elements in working memory (WM) to be maintained simultaneously, accessing one of these elements, and substituting its content. This study examined possible developmental changes from childhood to adulthood both in focus switching and substituting information in WM. In addition, possible age-related changes in interference due to representational overlap between the different elements simultaneously held in these tasks were examined. Children (8- and 11-year-olds), adolescents (14-year-olds) and younger adults (mean age=22 years) were administered a numerical updating memory task, in which updating and focus switching were manipulated. As expected, response times decreased and recall performance increased with age. More importantly, the time needed for focus switching was longer in children than in adolescents and younger adults. On the other hand, substitution of information and interference due to representational overlap were not affected by age. These results suggest that age-related changes in focus switching might mediate developmental changes in WMU performance.
工作记忆更新（WMU）任务要求工作记忆（WM）中的不同元素同时得到维持，访问其中一个元素，并替换其内容。本研究考察了从童年到成年在工作记忆中焦点转换和信息替换方面可能的发展变化。此外，还考察了由于这些任务中同时持有的不同元素之间的表征重叠而导致的与年龄相关的干扰变化。对儿童（8岁和11岁）、青少年（14岁）和年轻成年人（平均年龄 = 22岁）进行了一项数字更新记忆任务，其中对更新和焦点转换进行了操控。正如预期的那样，反应时间随着年龄的增长而减少，回忆表现随着年龄的增长而提高。更重要的是，儿童进行焦点转换所需的时间比青少年和年轻成年人更长。另一方面，信息替换以及由于表征重叠而产生的干扰不受年龄影响。这些结果表明，与年龄相关的焦点转换变化可能介导了工作记忆更新表现的发展变化。
