The Development of Non-Spatial Working Memory Capacity During Childhood and Adolescence and the Role of Interference Control: An N-Back Task Study

Abstract

To investigate the role of interference control on the development of working memory (WM) capacity, 6–12-year-old children and adults performed an N-Back task with differing WM-load and interference control demands. Correlation analyses between flanker interference scores and WM-load levels showed that interference control was only required in the 2-back condition. While WM maintenance (1-back task) reached adult accuracy levels at age 10–12, the ability to maintain information in WM during distraction (2-back-task) displayed protracted maturation into adolescence. This is suggested to reflect yet immature connections between prefrontal and posterior association areas, respectively involved in interference control and WM storage.

Notes

^aNone of the participants scored within the clinical range of attention problems on the Child Behavior Checklist (children) or self report form of the ADD-H Comprehensive Teacher's Rating Scale (ACTeRS) (adults). bIQ scores differed significantly between the groups, F(3,74) = 6.43, p < .01. Bonferroni-corrected post hoc comparisons revealed that both 8–9 and 10–12-year-olds differed significantly from the group of adults (p < .01). Therefore, all analyses were performed with IQ as covariate, which revealed no altered significant levels and thus all further analyses were performed without IQ as covariate.

^bSocioeconomic status (SES) was determined by Hollingshead (1975) occupational scale for the parent holding the higher status job (1 or 2 = unskilled or unemployed positions, 3 or 4 = skilled or semiskilled laborers, 5 or 6 = managerial professions, 8 or 9 = major professions). Parental occupation data were not available for one child in the group of 6–7- and two children in the group of 8–9-year-olds. SES was not available for adults, but all adults were university students.