Verbal short-term memory in children: The role of the articulator loop

Does learning to read shape verbal working memory?

“…As we have seen, the use of a verbal code to memorize images emerges gradually in typical children from about 6 years of age (e.g., Halliday et al, 1990;Henry et al, 2012;Tam et al, 2010), the age at which reading instruction usually starts. As reading acquisition boosts the emergence of explicit speech representations, this could in turn make speech-mediated retention possible, or at least facilitate the strategic use of a phonological code in memory.…”

“…Phonological recoding of visual material is classically reflected by the phonological similarity effect (i.e., the observation that phonologically confusable items -usually rhyming ones -are harder to recall than phonologically nonconfusable items; Conrad & Hull, 1964). Contrary to most older children and adults, children younger than 5-6 years of age often fail to show a significant phonological similarity effect with visually presented items that have similar names (e.g., Halliday, Hitch, Lennon, & Pettipher, 1990;Henry, Messer, Luger-Klein, & Crane, 2012;Hitch, Woodin, & Baker, 1989). Some data suggest that the use of a predominantly visual strategy is followed by a period of dual coding (both visual and phonological) before the adult-like strategy of verbal coding finally emerges around 8 years of age (Palmer, 2000a).…”

The Development of Working Memory: Exploring the Complementarity of Two Models

“…Prior to each experimental condition, the suppression task was demonstrated and children were given additional practice. To safeguard against possible general attentional effects of the suppression tasks, training was continued until these became familiar to them, although experimental studies have shown that such demand characteristics can be excluded (e.g., Halliday et al 1990). …”

“…The use of subvocal rehearsal has been shown to develop earlier for spoken words than for pictures (Halliday, Hitch, Lennon, & Pettipher, 1990;Hitch et al, 1989a;Hitch, Halliday, & Littler, 1989b;Hitch, Halliday, Schaafstal, & Schraagen, 1988;Hitch, Woodin, & Baker, 1989c;Hulme, Thomson, Muir, & Lawrence, 1984;Hulme & Tordoff, 1989;Johnston, Johnson, & Gray, 1987). This can be interpreted in terms of an optional recoding process that visual inputs have to undergo in order to gain access to the phonological store, whereas spoken materials have automatic access.…”

“…Hence, it was hypothesised that performance on both tasks will reveal an age-related increment of one unit every two years. Typical of developmental studies generated from Baddeley's perspective is the hypothesis of a progressive complementation of visual coding by phonological coding with age (Halliday et al, 1990;Hitch et al, 1988Hitch et al, , 1989a. To test this hypothesis both tasks were administered with concurrent verbal suppression.…”