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Development of navigational working memory: Evidence from 6‐ to 10‐year‐old children
Author(s) -
Piccardi Laura,
Leonzi Marina,
D'Amico Simonetta,
Marano Assunta,
Guariglia Cecilia
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/bjdp.12036
Subject(s) - working memory , psychology , cognitive psychology , representation (politics) , space (punctuation) , developmental psychology , memory rehearsal , spatial memory , short term memory , cognition , computer science , neuroscience , politics , political science , law , operating system
The ability to learn complex environments may require the contribution of different types of working memory. Therefore, we investigated the development of different types of working memory (navigational, reaching, and verbal) in 129 typically developing children. We aimed to determine whether navigational working memory develops at the same rate as other types of working memory and whether the gender differences reported in adults are already present during development. We found that navigational working memory is less developed than both verbal and reaching working memory and that gender predicts performance only for navigational working memory. Our results are in line with reports that children made significantly more errors in far space than adults, showing that near space representation develops before far space representation.