Liang Yibiao, Blaser Erik, Yi Jia Ying, Sai Liyang, Kaldy Zsuzsa
Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston.
Institute of Psychology, Goethe University Frankfurt.
Psychol Sci. 2025 Jan;36(1):19-34. doi: 10.1177/09567976241306424. Epub 2025 Jan 27.
Most work on working memory development has children remember a set of items as well as they can. However, this approach sidesteps the , the integration of external information with memory. Indeed, adults prefer to use external resources (e.g., lists, models) but will remember more as the cost to access them increases. Here, in our shopping game, we investigated this trade-off in 5- to 8-year-olds. Using a touchscreen, children shopped in a virtual store. Their shopping list and the store were not visible simultaneously but could be toggled. We manipulated access cost by varying a delay (0-4 s) before the list's reappearance. Across three preregistered experiments at two sites (the United States and China, = 141), a pattern emerged: When it was costlier to do so, children revisited the list less often, studied it longer, and selected more correct items. Also, children recognized the costs, identifying the no-delay condition as easier. Young children showed a cost-dependent trade-off of external-resource use versus working memory.
大多数关于工作记忆发展的研究让儿童尽可能好地记住一组物品。然而，这种方法回避了外部信息与记忆的整合。实际上，成年人更喜欢使用外部资源（如清单、模型），但随着获取这些资源的成本增加，他们会记住更多信息。在此，在我们的购物游戏中，我们研究了5至8岁儿童的这种权衡。通过触摸屏，儿童在虚拟商店购物。他们的购物清单和商店不会同时可见，但可以切换。我们通过改变清单重新出现之前的延迟（0至4秒）来操纵获取成本。在两个地点（美国和中国，N = 141）进行的三个预先注册的实验中，出现了一种模式：当这样做成本更高时，儿童查看清单的频率更低，研究清单的时间更长，并且选择的正确物品更多。此外，儿童认识到了成本，将无延迟条件视为更容易的。幼儿表现出了外部资源使用与工作记忆之间基于成本的权衡。
