Working Memory structure in children: Testing Baddeley and Hitch?s model in different ages

INJOQUE-RICLE I., BARREYRO J. P., & BURIN D. I.

Escritos de Psicologia

Facultad de Psicología, Univ. de Malaga

Lugar: Màlaga; Año: 2012 vol. 5 p. 27 - 38

1138-2635

Working Memory (WM) is an active memory system responsible for temporary storage and concurrent processing of information. Different authors have considered WM as a complex but unitary system, others suggests a fractioning within WM. Within the last line of researchers, one of the most accepted models is the one developed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974), which proposed two modality specific components, the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad, and a supervisory executive system, the central executive. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate of WM structure in three age groups of children, testing different models using confirmatory factor analysis. The Working Memory Assessment battery test (AWMA; Alloway, 2007; Injoque-Ricle, Calero, Alloway & Burin, 2011) was administered to one-hundred and eighty monolingual Spanish-speaking children. They belonged to three age groups (n = 60 ss. each): 6-, 8-, and 11-years old. The results suggest that WM structure changes among the tested group ages, showing a progressive differentiation and specialization within WM through childhood. Between the ages of 6 and 8 this memory system would initiate its structuring, and near adolescence its structure would become more complex.