Variability in Children’s Working Memory Is Coupled With Perceived Disturbance: An Ambulatory Assessment Study in the School and Out-of-School Context

Abstract

The detrimental effect of noise on cognitive performance particularly for younger children has been repeatedly demonstrated in numerous experimental and few field studies. We examined whether children’s daily working memory (WM) performance is affected by daily perceived disturbance in the school and out-of-school context. In an ambulatory assessment study, 110 third and fourth grade students completed WM tasks and reported on their perceived disturbance on smartphones three times daily in and out of school for four weeks. Disturbance varied systematically within children and increased levels of disturbance were associated with decreased WM performance, independent of context.

Acknowledgments

This research was part of the FLUX project at the Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk (IDeA) in Frankfurt, Germany, funded by the Hessian Initiative for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence (LOEWE). We thank Heiko Rölke and the Technology Based Assessment Group at the German Institute for International Educational Research for developing and providing the software to assess children’s performance and experiences via smartphones. We owe special thanks to Verena Diel, Tanja Könen, Jan Kühnhausen, Anja Leonhardt, Philipp Wiesemann, and a team of highly committed student assistants for their important roles in conducting the FLUX project.