Abstract
Measures of working memory capacity (WMC) are extremely popular, yet we know relatively little about the specific processes that support recall. We focused on children’s and adults’ ability to use contextual support to access working memory representations that might otherwise not be reported. Children (N = 186, 5-10 years) and adults (N = 64) completed a listening span task and a delayed recall task with semantic probes or cues. Clear age-related increases in listening span were evident. All age groups benefitted from contextual support to retrieve degraded target memoranda, particularly on listening span tasks when the cues provided semantic support for processing events, in comparison to cues associated specifically with memoranda. Response latencies suggested a developing efficiency in children’s use of contextual support for delayed recall correlated with listening span performance. These probe tasks support accounts of working memory that recognise reconstructive and cued search processes.
Highlights
Working memory is a highly influential construct that has been instrumental for understanding adult cognition and children’s cognitive development (Alloway, Gathercole, & Pickering, 2006; Hitch et al, 1983)
We sought to establish whether children and adults could capitalise on cues in a complex span task to recall items that they spontaneously failed to report
The fact that they did so supports the view that memoranda may reside in a fragile state: inaccessible but not yet forgotten through a typical immediate memory paradigm
Summary
Working memory is a highly influential construct that has been instrumental for understanding adult cognition and children’s cognitive development (Alloway, Gathercole, & Pickering, 2006; Hitch et al, 1983). One historically powerful way to conceptualise this is through the “acid bath” model of forgetting (Posner & Konick, 1966), whereby cognitive activity disrupts or dissolves the original trace to the point that it can no longer be identified. This type of perspective encourages the contrast between representations that are available (remembered) or inaccessible (forgotten). Memoranda may not be remembered using traditional methods, yet they have not been entirely forgotten We argue that this complements contemporary accounts of working memory recall that specify how fragile (i.e., incomplete or uncertain) working memory representations can be reconstructed and scaffolded
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