Working memory development: The effects of speech rate, word length, and acoustic similarity on serial recall

Abstract

The effects of word length and acoustic similarity on speech rate and serial recall performance were investigated in children ranging in age from 4 to 10 years. Children of different ages show a word-length effect of equivalent size, and increases in recall with age are well accounted for by corresponding increases in speech rate. In contrast to this, the absolute difference in recall between acoustically similar and dissimilar lists increases as children get older, and the size of this difference is related to speech rate. It is argued that the pattern of results obtained may be explained in terms of a development of the articulatory loop as embodied in A. D. Baddeley and G. Hitch's (1974, in G. H. Bower, Ed., The psychology of learning and motivation. Vol. 8, New York: Academic Press) working memory model.