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The Role of Attention in the Development of Short‐Term Memory: Age Differences in the Verbal Span of Apprehension
Author(s) -
Cowan Nelson,
Nugent Lara D.,
Elliott Emily M.,
Ponomarev Igor,
Saults J. Scott
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8624.00080
Subject(s) - psychology , short term memory , apprehension , attention span , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , term (time) , verbal memory , nonverbal communication , verbal learning , memory span , long term memory , memory development , cognitive development , cognition , working memory , neuroscience , physics , quantum mechanics
In previous studies of memory span, participants have attended to the stimuli while they were presented, and therefore have had the opportunity to use a variety of mnemonic strategies. In the main portion of the present study, participants (first‐ and fourth‐grade children, and adults; 24 per age group) carried out a visual task while hearing lists of spoken digits and received a post‐list digit recall cue only occasionally, for some lists. Under these conditions, list information presumably must be extracted from a passively held store such as auditory sensory memory. The results suggest that each individual has a core memory capacity limit that can be observed clearly in circumstances in which it cannot be supplemented by mnemonic strategies, and that the capacity limit appears to increase with age during childhood. Other, attention‐demanding processes also contribute to memory for attended lists.