Nicolaou E, Quach J, Lum J, Roberts G, Spencer-Smith M, Gathercole S, Anderson P J, Mensah F K, Wake M
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Vic, Australia.
The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.
Child Care Health Dev. 2018 May;44(3):392-400. doi: 10.1111/cch.12543. Epub 2017 Dec 11.
Adaptive working memory training is being implemented without an adequate understanding of developmental trajectories of working memory. We aimed to quantify from Grade 1 to Grade 3 of primary school (1) changes in verbal and visuospatial working memory and (2) whether low verbal and visuospatial working memory in Grade 1 predicts low working memory in Grade 3.
The study design includes a population-based longitudinal study of 1,802 children (66% uptake from all 2,747 Grade 1 students) at 44 randomly selected primary schools in Melbourne, Australia. Backwards Digit Recall (verbal working memory) and Mister X (visuospatial working memory) screening measures from the Automated Working Memory Assessment (M = 100; SD = 15) were used to assess Grades 1 and 3 (ages 6-7 and 8-9 years) students. Low working memory was defined as ≥1 standard deviation below the standard score mean. Descriptive statistics addressed Aim 1, and predictive parameters addressed Aim 2.
One thousand seventy (59%) of 1802 Grade 1 participants were reassessed in Grade 3. As expected for typically developing children, group mean standard scores were similar in Grades 1 and 3 for verbal, visuospatial, and overall working memory, but group mean raw scores increased markedly. Compared to "not low" children, those classified as having low working memory in Grade 1 showed much larger increases in both standard and raw scores across verbal, visuospatial, and overall working memory. Sensitivity was very low for Grade 1 low working memory predicting Grade 3 low classifications.
Although mean changes in working memory standard scores between Grades 1 and 3 were minimal, we found that individual development varied widely, with marked natural resolution by Grade 3 in children who initially had low working memory. This may render brain-training interventions ineffective in the early school year ages, particularly if (as population-based programmes usually mandate) selection occurs within a screening paradigm.
适应性工作记忆训练在实施时，人们对工作记忆的发展轨迹缺乏充分了解。我们旨在量化小学一年级到三年级期间：（1）言语和视觉空间工作记忆的变化；（2）一年级时较低的言语和视觉空间工作记忆是否能预测三年级时较低的工作记忆。
本研究设计为对澳大利亚墨尔本44所随机选取的小学中的1802名儿童（占全部2747名一年级学生的66%）进行基于人群的纵向研究。使用自动工作记忆评估中的倒序数字回忆（言语工作记忆）和X先生（视觉空间工作记忆）筛查量表（M = 100；SD = 15）对一年级和三年级（年龄6 - 7岁和8 - 9岁）的学生进行评估。低工作记忆被定义为低于标准分数均值1个标准差及以上。描述性统计用于解决目标1，预测参数用于解决目标2。
1802名一年级参与者中有1070名（59%）在三年级时接受了重新评估。正如典型发育儿童所预期的那样，一年级和三年级在言语、视觉空间及整体工作记忆方面的组平均标准分数相似，但组平均原始分数显著增加。与“非低”儿童相比，一年级时被归类为低工作记忆的儿童在言语、视觉空间及整体工作记忆方面的标准分数和原始分数增加幅度更大。一年级低工作记忆预测三年级低分类的敏感性非常低。
虽然一年级到三年级工作记忆标准分数的平均变化很小，但我们发现个体发展差异很大，最初工作记忆较低的儿童到三年级时自然改善明显。这可能导致在学年早期进行的大脑训练干预无效，特别是如果（如基于人群的项目通常要求的那样）在筛查模式下进行选择。
