Age‐related improvement in short‐term memory efficiency during adolescence

Abstract

Short‐term memory (STM) efficiency was evaluated in groups of younger (12–14 years old), mid (14–16) and older (16–19) adolescents using a modification of the Brown‐Peterson STM distractor paradigm. Although the 3 groups were equated on measures of school achievement, younger subjects tended to perform significantly worse than older subjects on the Four Word STM Test. Regression analyses demonstrated that after controlling for the effects of age, STM scores were affected both by encoding ability and efficiency at performing the intervening distractor task. These results suggest that contrary to other reports, short‐term memory continues to improve during adolescence as subjects become increasingly adept at deploying efficient information‐processing strategies.