Editing Working memory (section)

=== Childhood ===
{{Main|Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development}}

Measures of performance on tests of working memory increase continuously between early childhood and adolescence, while the structure of correlations between different tests remains largely constant.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> Starting with work in the Neo-Piagetian tradition,<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/0001-6918(70)90108-3 | vauthors = Pascual-Leone J | year = 1970 | title = A mathematical model for the transition rule in Piaget's developmental stages | journal = Acta Psychologica | volume = 32 | pages = 301–345 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Case R | date = 1985 | title = Intellectual development. Birth to adulthood. | location = New York | publisher = Academic Press }}</ref> theorists have argued that the growth of working-memory capacity is a major driving force of cognitive development. This hypothesis has received substantial empirical support from studies showing that the capacity of working memory is a strong predictor of cognitive abilities in childhood.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Jarrold C, Bayliss DM | date = 2007 | chapter = Variation in working memory due to typical and atypical development. | veditors = Conway AR, Jarrold C, Kane MJ, Miyake A, Towse JN | title = Variation in working memory | pages = 137–161 | location = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-516864-8 | oclc = 1222332615 }}</ref> Particularly strong evidence for a role of working memory for development comes from a longitudinal study showing that working-memory capacity at one age predicts reasoning ability at a later age.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Kail RV | title = Longitudinal evidence that increases in processing speed and working memory enhance children's reasoning | journal = Psychological Science | volume = 18 | issue = 4 | pages = 312–313 | date = April 2007 | pmid = 17470254 | doi = 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01895.x | s2cid = 32240795 }}</ref> Studies in the Neo-Piagetian tradition have added to this picture by analyzing the complexity of cognitive tasks in terms of the number of items or relations that have to be considered simultaneously for a solution. Across a broad range of tasks, children manage task versions of the same level of complexity at about the same age, consistent with the view that working memory capacity limits the complexity they can handle at a given age.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Andrews G, Halford GS | title = A cognitive complexity metric applied to cognitive development | journal = Cognitive Psychology | volume = 45 | issue = 2 | pages = 153–219 | date = September 2002 | pmid = 12528901 | doi = 10.1016/S0010-0285(02)00002-6 | s2cid = 30126328 }}</ref> One experiment has correlated that a decrease of complexity regarding capacity limits are articulated from research concerning language processes, outlining the effect on the capacity of children with language disorders, having performed lower than their age-matched peers. A correlation between memory storage deficits can be viewed as a contribution due to these language disorders, or rather the cause of the language disorder, but has not fully suggested a deficit in being able to rehearse information.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Adams EJ, Nguyen AT, Cowan N | title = Theories of Working Memory: Differences in Definition, Degree of Modularity, Role of Attention, and Purpose | journal = Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools | volume = 49 | issue = 3 | pages = 340–355 | date = July 2018 | pmid = 29978205 | pmc = 6105130 | doi = 10.1044/2018_LSHSS-17-0114 }}</ref>

Although neuroscience studies support the notion that children rely on prefrontal cortex for performing various working memory tasks, an [[fMRI]] meta-analysis on children compared to adults performing the n back task revealed a lack of consistent prefrontal cortex activation in children, while posterior regions including the [[insular cortex]] and [[cerebellum]] remain intact.<ref name="Yaple_2018">{{cite journal | vauthors = Yaple Z, Arsalidou M | title = N-back Working Memory Task: Meta-analysis of Normative fMRI Studies With Children | journal = Child Development | volume = 89 | issue = 6 | pages = 2010–2022 | date = November 2018 | pmid = 29732553 | doi = 10.1111/cdev.13080 | url = }}</ref>