工作记忆广度对儿童算术认知策略的影响

选取113名小学二年级儿童为被试,探讨了工作记忆广度对儿童算术认知策略的影响。结果表明:不同工作记忆广度儿童在出声、手动、心里数数、竖式、分解、凑整、猜测和放弃策略的选择频次上具有显著差异,在算术认知策略的执行上,差异明显;随着工作记忆广度的增加,出声策略表现出了波动型的变化曲线,手动、心里数数、凑整和猜测策略具有门槛型的变化趋势,竖式、分解和放弃策略呈现出阶梯状的变化特点。这些结果说明,儿童算术认知策略表现受到其工作记忆容量明显的限制性作用。     

工作记忆广度个体差异模型述评

探究工作记忆广度的个体差异对揭示工作记忆实质具有重要的意义,文章首先介绍了工作记忆广度任务的特点,其次,对目前工作记忆广度个体差异的主要理论模型进行阐述和评价,最后总结了可能影响工作记忆广度个体差异的主要因素。     

8岁到成年期工作记忆广度的发展

工作记忆与认知能力、智力和学习能力有密切的联系.本研究采用横断研究的方法,测量了213名8岁到成年期被试的数字、词语和视空间工作记忆广度,探查了工作记忆广度的发展情况.结果发现,数字工作记忆广度在此期间持续增长,词语广度在18岁达到最高,视空间工作记忆广度在14-16岁达到高峰.不同任务的工作记忆广度具有相似的发展趋势,但工作记忆的平均广度分数与Pascual-Leone模型的预测并不一致.     

6-9岁儿童工作记忆的发展研究

以Baddeley工作记忆模型为基础考察儿童语音环路、视觉空间模板、中央执行的发展及其与复杂广度的关系。225名6-9岁被试完成9个任务,分别测量听力广度及工作记忆三个子系统的功能。发现工作记忆各个子成分的功能在6-9岁期间发展速度不同;中央执行与语音环路和视觉空间模板的联系随年龄增长加强;结构方程模型分析发现中央执行和语音环路功能对儿童听力广度都有显著的直接影响,表明言语复杂广度任务既涉及中央执行功能也涉及语音环路的存贮功能。     

执行功能在不同年级儿童数学能力中的作用

选取812名三～六年级的儿童,采用相关分析和结构方程模型等方法考察了各执行功能成分在不同年级儿童三种数学能力中的作用。结果显示,在低年级阶段,工作记忆广度是数学运算能力、空间想象能力和逻辑思维能力最重要的预测因素;在高年级阶段,工作记忆广度对三种数学能力的预测作用下降,而工作记忆刷新和认知灵活性对数学能力的预测作用提升。这表明,各执行功能成分对不同数学能力的预测作用存在差异,并将随儿童年级的增长而发生变化。     

第二语言语义提取中的工作记忆效应

本文报告一项针对工作记忆容量是否制约中国英语学习者第二语言语义提取效率的实验。实验考查了工作记忆广度中的个体差异是否抑制学习者对第二语言单词语义信息的提取问题,还探索了工作记忆广度和第二语言词汇知识水平的相关性。研究以通用容量工作记忆模型为基础,采用运算广度的工作记忆测试,得出工作记忆广度对单词语义信息的提取没有显著抑制作用的结果。结果还显示工作记忆广度与第二语言词汇知识水平之间没有显著的线性关系。     

工作记忆广度：资源限制、记忆消退还是转换机制？

为了检验工作记忆广度有限性的3种假说,即资源限制假说、记忆消退假说和转换机制假说,实验要求被试首先完成一项转换效率任务,然后完成工作记忆广度任务。结果发现,加工负荷对工作记忆广度具有重要影响,保持时间不影响工作记忆广度,转换效率与工作记忆广度也没有显著相关。实验结果支持工作记忆广度受认知资源限制的观点     

加工时间和加工速度对工作记忆广度的影响

对工作记忆广度机制的四个模型:资源共享模型、任务转换假说、干扰说和时间资源共享模型进行了检验。以60名大学本科生为被试,完成工作记忆广度任务和转换任务。结果表明:加工时间和加工项目数不是影响工作记忆广度的主要因素;工作记忆广度受到加工速度的影响;工作记忆广度和线索-任务转换代价呈显著的负相关关系。结果支持时间资源共享模型,工作记忆广度取决于注意在加工和存储之间快速、灵活的转换。     

双重缺陷汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童的言语工作记忆和阅读能力研究

选取语音意识和快速自动命名双重缺陷的汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童,探讨其言语工作记忆和阅读能力的发展特点。实验选取双重缺陷的发展性阅读障碍（DD）、年龄匹配（CA）和能力匹配（RL）三组儿童各25名,要求他们完成言语工作记忆（数字广度、汉字广度）和阅读（一分钟词汇阅读、三分钟句子阅读）任务。结果发现,DD儿童的数字倒背位数、一分钟读词数、三分钟读过字数和句子理解正确率均显著低于CA儿童,而与RL儿童差异不显著;DD儿童的句子阅读正确率显著低于CA、RL儿童。表明双重缺陷DD儿童在言语工作记忆和阅读能力上存在一定程度的发展滞后和缺陷。     

小学4年级儿童多位数乘法策略的特点及其与工作记忆的关系

本研究随机抽取120名四年级儿童作为被试,采用实验法和访谈法对儿童解决多位数乘法算术题的策略特点及与工作记忆的关系进行了探讨。结果发现:1.儿童能运用多种策略进行多位数乘法运算,而且儿童在解决同一道题时大多能同时使用两种或两种以上的策略。2.不同工作记忆广度的儿童都表现出了对于题目类型的策略选择适应性。     

On the interpretation of working memory span in adults

Experimental research into children's working memory span has shown that retention duration contributes substantially to span performance, while processing efficiency need not be related to concurrent memory load (Towse, Hitch, & Hutton, 1998). These findings have been used to argue for a model of working memory span that emphasizes time-based forgetting rather than the popular resource-sharing or tradeoff framework. The present paper considers whether adults perform working memory span tasks in a qualitatively different way. Data from reading span and operation span tasks show that adults' performance can be distinguished from that of children, but also that a task-switching model of working memory span can explain some important aspects of performance.     

Individual differences in working memory: introduction to the special section.

This special section includes a set of 5 articles that examine the nature of inter- and intraindividual differences in working memory, using working memory span tasks as the main research tools. These span tasks are different from traditional short-term memory spans (e.g., digit or word span) in that they require participants to maintain some target memory items (e.g., words) while simultaneously performing some other tasks (e.g., reading sentences). In this introduction, a brief discussion of these working memory span tasks and their characteristics is provided first. This is followed by an overview of 2 major theoretical issues that are addressed by the subsequent articles--(a) the factors influencing the inter- and intraindividual differences in working memory performance and (b) the domain generality versus domain specificity of working memory--and also of some important issues that must be kept in mind when readers try to evaluate the claims regarding these 2 theoretical issues.     

Individual differences in sentence memory

Results from an experiment with two parts are presented in this paper. In part one, participants listened to sentences containing two, three, four, or five clauses, and were asked questions about the content of the sentences. The results of part one demonstrate that an important unit of representation in sentence memory is the clause, and not some other component of discourse structure. In part two, the same group of participants performed eight different short-term storage/working memory tasks. A composite complex span score was computed for each participant based on three working memory tasks closely based on Daneman & Carpenter's (1980) reading span task. This working memory measure was significantly correlated with the participants' performance on the sentence memory task in part one. A second working memory measure—N-back—was also significantly correlated with the participants' performance on the sentence memory task, and there was no correlation between their performance on the complex span task and the N-back task. It is therefore concluded that (i) working memory consists of a number of dissociable components; and (ii) memory for sentences taps into more than one of these working memory components. Furthermore, the high correlations of sentence memory with the complex span and the N-back tasks (neither of which are language processing tasks) suggests that memory for sentences is not simply a result of linguistic experience; rather, it is likely that an independent working memory component contributes to participants' performance on the sentence memory task.     

Chinese subject-relative clauses are more difficult to process than the object-relative clauses

This paper presents an experiment that compared high and low working memory span readers' abilities to process Chinese subject-relative and object-relative clause structures in a self-paced reading paradigm. Comprehension performance results indicated that the object-relative structure was easier to understand than the subject-relative structure. Reading time results showed that participants with low working memory span read the subject-relative structures more slowly than the object-relative structures, but there was no reading time difference for the high working memory span participants. The experiment provides further evidence that the Chinese subject-relative clause structure is more difficult to process than the Chinese object-relative clause structure, especially for low working memory span individuals. Furthermore, these results support a syntactic storage account of the observed complexity difference.     

Differential constraints on the working memory and reading abilities of individuals with learning difficulties and typically developing children

This study examined the factors that constrain the working memory span performance and reading ability of individuals with generalized learning difficulties. In the study, 50 individuals with learning difficulties (LD) and 50 typically developing children (TD) matched for reading age completed two working memory span tasks. Participants also completed independent measures of the processing and storage operations involved in each working memory span task and Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices. The results showed that despite an equivalent level of working memory span, the relative importance of the constraints on working memory differed between the groups. In addition, working memory span was not closely related to word recognition or sentence comprehension performance in the LD group. These results suggest that the working memory span performance of LD and TD individuals may reflect different working memory limitations and that individuals with generalized learning difficulties may approach cognitive tasks in a qualitatively different way from that of typically developing individuals.     

Poor working memory predicts false memories

Two studies investigated whether individual differences in simple span verbal working memory and complex working memory capacity are related to memory accuracy and susceptibility to false memory development. In Study 1, undergraduate students (N=60) were given two simple span working memory tests: forward and backward digit span. They also underwent a memory task that is known to elicit false memories of nonpresented words, the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Poor simple span working memory (as reflected by suboptimal backward digit span scores) was related to elevated levels of false recognition. Study 2 (N=65) replicated this finding, in that suboptimal backward digit span performance was found to be predictive of false recognition. However, complex working memory capacity (operation span) was not related to false recognition. This pattern suggests that even in a homogenous sample of undergraduates, poor working memory is associated with the susceptibility to recollect words never presented.     

What limits children's working memory span? Theoretical accounts and applications for scholastic development.

Explanations of working memory span in children were studied in a longitudinal follow-up of J. N. Towse, G. J. Hitch, and U. Hutton (1998). Reading span and operation span were lower when within-task retention intervals were lengthened. For each task, variation in span between test waves and age cohorts was systematically related to changes in processing speed. The two spans explained substantial shared variance in both reading and arithmetic scores, with some evidence for domain specificity. Combined span scores predicted unique variance in scholastic attainment over a 1-year interval. The authors concluded that working memory span is constrained by rapid loss of active codes and is not simply a measure of capacity for resource sharing. Working memory is also implicated in scholastic development.     

Working memory and language comprehension: A meta-analysis

This paper presents a meta-analysis of the data from 6,179 participants in 77 studies that investigated the association between working-memory capacity and language comprehension ability. A primary goal of the meta-analysis was to compare the predictive power of the measures of working memory developed by Daneman and Carpenter (1980) with the predictive power of other measures of working memory. The results of the meta-analysis support Daneman and Carpenter’s (1980) claim that measures that tap the combined processing and storage capacity of working memory (e.g., reading span, listening span) are better predictors of comprehension than are measures that tap only the storage capacity (e.g., word span, digit span). The meta-analysis also showed that math process plus storage measures of working memory are good predictors of comprehension. Thus, the superior predictive power of the process plus storage measures is not limited to measures that involve the manipulation of words and sentences.