Visual working memory and perception speed of 3- to 6-year-old children tested with a Matrix Film Battery Test

Abstract

In this study the visual working memory (VWM) and perception speed of 60 children between the ages of three and six years were tested with an age-based, easy-to-handle Matrix Film Battery Test (reliability R = .71). It was thereby affirmed that the VWM is age dependent (correlation coefficient r = .66***) as expected. Furthermore, a significant gender effect was found (partial correlation coefficient r_p = .42***) indicating that boys generally have a better VWM: they are able to memorise more items and they can process visual information faster. Given that the test was repeated during a period of eight months, strong learning effects could be detected which show that the VWM can be trained and that the test itself is also a good training tool.

Keywords:

• visual working memory
• perception speed
• children
• preschool
• matrix test
• Matrix Film Battery Test

Notes on contributors

Martin L. Pittorf, Dipl. Geophysicist, is a PhD student (psychophysiology and perception) at the Media Faculty of the Bauhaus Universität Weimar, and the managing director of punkt um FILM GmbH, Biederitz. His research interests are visual working memory and children's age-dependent film understanding.

Wolfgang Lehmann, Prof. Dr., is a professor at the Helmut-Schmidt-Universität Hamburg. His research interests are talent and gift, mental rotation, space cognition, mathematical competence in pre-school children and cognitive development throughout a lifespan.

Anke Huckauf, Prof. Dr., is the head of the Department Allgemeine Psychologie at the Universität Ulm. Her research interests are reading, perception, interaction with media and gaze control.