Models provide specificity: Testing a proposed mechanism of visual working memory capacity development

Numerous studies have established that visual working memory has a limited capacity that increases during childhood. However, debate continues over the source of capacity limits and its developmental increase. Simmering (2008) adapted a computational model of spatial cognitive development, the Dynamic Field Theory, to explain not only the source of capacity limitations but also the developmental mechanism. Capacity is limited by the balance between excitation and inhibition that maintains multiple neural representations simultaneously in the model. Development occurs according to the Spatial Precision Hypothesis, which proposes that excitatory and inhibitory connections strengthen throughout early childhood. These changes in connectivity result in increasing precision and stability of neural representations over development. Here we test this developmental mechanism by probing children's memory in a single-item change detection task. Results confirmed the model's predictions, providing further support for this account of visual working memory capacity development.