Tracy Packiam Alloway

Investigating the predictive roles of working memory and IQ in academic attainment

There is growing evidence for the relationship between working memory and academic attainment. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether working memory is simply a proxy for IQ or whether there is a unique contribution to learning outcomes. The findings indicate that childrens working memory skills at 5 years of age were the best predictor of literacy and numeracy 6 years later. IQ, in contrast, accounted for a smaller portion of unique variance to these learning outcomes. The results demonstrate that working memory is not a proxy for IQ but rather represents a dissociable cognitive skill with unique links to academic attainment. Critically, we find that working memory at the start of formal education is a more powerful predictor of subsequent academic success than IQ. This result has important implications for education, particularly with respect to intervention.

The Cognitive and Behavioral Characteristics of Children With Low Working Memory

This study explored the cognitive and behavioral profiles of children with working memory impairments. In an initial screening of 3,189 five- to eleven-year-olds, 308 were identified as having very low working memory scores. Cognitive skills (IQ, vocabulary, reading, and math), classroom behavior, and self-esteem were assessed. The majority of the children struggled in the learning measures and verbal ability. They also obtained atypically high ratings of cognitive problems/inattentive symptoms and were judged to have short attention spans, high levels of distractibility, problems in monitoring the quality of their work, and difficulties in generating new solutions to problems. These data provide rich new information on the cognitive and behavioral profiles that characterize children with low working memory.

Working memory and phonological awareness as predictors of progress towards early learning goals at school entry

This study investigates whether working memory skills of children are related to teacher ratings of their progress towards learning goals at the time of school entry, at 4 or 5 years of age. A sample of 194 children was tested on measures of working memory, phonological awareness, and non-verbal ability, in addition to the school-based baseline assessments in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics, speaking and listening, and personal and social development. Various aspects of cognitive functioning formed unique associations with baseline assessments; for example complex memory span with rated writing skills, phonological short-term memory with both reading and speaking and listening skills, and sentence repetition scores with both mathematics and personal and social skills. Rated reading skills were also uniquely associated with phonological awareness scores. The findings indicate that the capacity to store and process material over short periods of time, referred to as working memory, and also the awareness of phonological structure, may play a crucial role in key learning areas for children at the beginning of formal education.

Working Memory in the Classroom

Publisher Summary There have been many claims by cognitive psychologists that working memory (WM) plays a role in learning during childhood, supported by studies demonstrating close links between WM skills and measures of learning and academic achievement. An important shortcoming of this approach is that it does not illuminate how and why WM is needed in the everyday classroom activities that form the basis for learning. A consistent finding from a large number of studies is a close relationship between childrens performance on indicators of scholastic attainments and their WM skills. Young people with low scores on standardized assessments of reading and mathematics usually score poorly on complex memory span tasks that involve both the processing and temporary storage of verbal reading material. To illuminate the specific nature of the failed learning episodes that may be contributing to the failure of such children to make normal scholastic progress, classroom behavior of three children with poor WM abilities was observed. Four different kinds of learning failure were observed with high frequency in each of these children that could be attributed to the children failing to meet the WM demands of the activity: forgetting instructions, failing to meet combined processing and storage demands, losing track in complex tasks, and forgetting from episodic long-term memory at high rates. The chapter concludes that learning failures impair the childrens chances of abstracting knowledge and skills that form the basis for functioning in the complex cognitive activities associated with the domains of literacy and mathematics.

Working Memory and Learning in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder and Specific Language Impairment

The authors compared 6- to 11-year-olds with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and those with specific language impairment (SLI) on measures of memory (verbal and visuospatial short-term and working memory) and learning (reading and mathematics). Children with DCD with typical language skills were impaired in all four areas of memory function for their age level, and this pattern was also found to be characteristic of a larger DCD group with varied language abilities. SLI-group deficits in standard scores were observed for the verbal versions of the short-term and working memory tasks only. There were also differential links between memory and attainment between the two groups, with visuospatial working memory strongly related to numeracy in the SLI group and all of the memory measures correlated with at least one attainment measure in the DCD group. Reasons for why working memory contributes to learning in these two developmental groups are discussed.

Evaluating the validity of the Automated Working Memory Assessment

The aim of the present study was to investigate the construct stability and diagnostic validity of a standardised computerised tool for assessing working memory: the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA). The purpose of the AWMA is to provide educators with a quick and effective tool to screen for and support those with memory impairments. Findings indicate that working memory skills in children with memory impairments are relatively stable over the course of the school year. There was also a high degree of convergence in performance between the AWMA and the WISC‐IV Working Memory Index. The educational implications are discussed.

Working Memory in Children With Developmental Disorders

The aim of the present study was to directly compare working memory skills across students with different developmental disorders to investigate whether the uniqueness of their diagnosis would impact memory skills. The authors report findings confirming differential memory profiles on the basis of the following developmental disorders: Specific Language Impairment, Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and Asperger syndrome (AS). Specifically, language impairments were associated with selective deficits in verbal short-term and working memory, whereas motor impairments (DCD) were associated with selective deficits in visuospatial short-term and working memory. Children with attention problems were impaired in working memory in both verbal and visuospatial domains, whereas the children with AS had deficits in verbal short-term memory but not in any other memory component. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of support for learning.

Computerized working memory training: Can it lead to gains in cognitive skills in students?

Given that working memory is an important cognitive skill that is linked to academic success, there is increasing attention given to exploring ways to support working memory problems in struggling students. One promising approach is computerized training, and the aim of the present study focused on whether computerized working memory training could result in both near and far transfer training effects; and whether such effects would be maintained over time. Students were allocated into one of three groups: Nonactive Control, Active Control, where they trained once a week (WMT-Low frequency); Training group, where they trained four times a week (WMT-High frequency). All three groups were tested on measures of working memory, verbal and nonverbal ability, and academic attainment before training; and re-tested on the same measures after training, as well as 8months later. The data indicate gains in both verbal and visuo-spatial working memory tasks for the high-frequency Training group. Improvements were also evidenced in tests of verbal and nonverbal ability tests, as well as spelling, in the high-frequency Training group. There were some maintenance effects when students were tested 8months later. Possible reasons for why the computerized working memory training led to some far transfer effects in the high-frequency Training group are included in the discussion.

The diagnostic utility of behavioral checklists in identifying children with ADHD and children with working memory deficits

The present study investigated whether children with ADHD and those with working memory impairments have a common behavioral profile in the classroom. Three teacher checklists were used: the Conners’ teacher rating scale (CTRS), the behavior rating inventory of executive function (BRIEF), and the working memory rating scale. The Conners’ continuous performance test (CPT) was also included to determine whether there is a correspondence between performance on this widely used cognitive measure of attention deficits and teacher ratings of classroom behavior. All three behavior scales, but not the CPT, were able to successfully discriminate children with ADHD and those with working memory deficits from typically-developing children. Both the CTRS and the BRIEF discriminated a significant proportion of the children with ADHD from those with working memory deficits, indicating that while both groups exhibit behavioral problems in the classroom, they are characterized by differential attention profiles. The children with ADHD were identified on the basis of oppositional and hyperactive behavior, while those with working memory deficits were more inattentive.

Examining the link between working memory behaviour and academic attainment in children with ADHD.

Aim  The aim of the present study was to investigate whether behaviours typical of working memory problems are associated with poor academic attainment in those with attention‐deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as a non‐clinical group identified on the basis of working memory difficulties.