Order of maturation of the components of the working memory from childhood to emerging adulthood

Abstract

• The components of the WM develop directly with respect to age until they reach a level of stability. • The maturation order of the WM components is different. • The central executive presents the latest maturation. The objective of this paper was to analyze the maturation order of WM components Phonological loop (PL), Visuo-spatial Sketchpad (VSS) and Central executive (CE), from childhood to emerging adulthood in subjects aged between 6 and 29 years , by means of Bonferroni comparisons between the direct scores of the different age groups. The WM direct scores were obtained with the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (WMTBC). Linear regressions between age and Z-scores of the direct scores of the three components of the WM were carried out. The results indicate that the different components of WM are linearly related to age, from 6 to 15 years old, replicating previously obtained results. ANOVA and Bonferroni-type comparisons show that there is a different order of maturation among the components that make up the WM, with the central executive being the component that matures later. A peculiar result was observed in the 16–17-year group for PL and CE. This group presents a significant difference with all the groups of lower age.