Table 1.
Estimates of verbal working memory capacity using simple span tasks.
| Age (years) |
||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | |
| Bayliss et al. (2005a) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recall | [ | 4.3 | ] | |||||||||||
| Bayliss et al. (2005b) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recall | [ | 4.0 | ] | |||||||||||
| Case et al. (1982) | ||||||||||||||
| Word recall | 3.0 | 3.7 | 4.5 | 4.5 | ||||||||||
| Cowan et al. (2005) | ||||||||||||||
| Auditory span recognition | 2.8 | 3.3 | 4.0 | |||||||||||
| Digit recalla | 4.7 | 4.9 | 5.4 | |||||||||||
| Cowan et al. (2006a) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recalla | 5.7 | |||||||||||||
| Cowan et al. (2006b) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recall (auditory) | 4.0 | |||||||||||||
| Letter recall (visual) | 3.2 | |||||||||||||
| Cowan et al. (1999) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit pretest | [ | 5.4 | ] | [ | 6.4 | ] | ||||||||
| Attended digitsb | [ | 4.0 | ] | [ | 4.8 | ] | ||||||||
| Cowan et al. (2006c) | ||||||||||||||
| Name span (visually presented) | 4.8 | 5.6 | ||||||||||||
| DeMarie and Ferron (2003) | ||||||||||||||
| Word span | 3.2 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 3.7 | 4.1 | |||||||||
| Digit span | 4.2 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 5.1 | |||||||||
| Dempster (1981)c | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recall | 2.3 | 4.4 | 5.0 | 6 | 6.5 | |||||||||
| Letter recall | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.9 | 5.3 | ||||||||||
| Word recall | 3.0 | 4 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.5 | |||||||||
| Engle and Marshall (1983) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recall, slow presentation | 3.5 | 4.7 | ||||||||||||
| Digit recall, fast presentation | 4.3 | 6.1 | ||||||||||||
| Gilchrist et al. (2009) | ||||||||||||||
| Word recall, order irrelevant | 4.0 | 5.2 | ||||||||||||
| Halford et al. (1994) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recallb | 4.2 | [ 5.1 ] | 6.1 | |||||||||||
| Hulme et al. (1984) | ||||||||||||||
| Short word recallb | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 | |||||||||
| Medium word recallb | 1.5 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 3.0 | 3.1 | |||||||||
| Long word recallb | 0.7 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.9 | 1.9 | |||||||||
| Huttenlocher and Burke (1976) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recall, grouped | 3.1 | 4.3 | 5.4 | 5.7 | ||||||||||
| Digit recall, ungrouped | 2.3 | 3.0 | 3.9 | 4.6 | ||||||||||
| Hutton and Towse (2001) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recall | 4.8 | 5.4 | ||||||||||||
| Imbo and Vandierendonck (2007) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recall | 5.5 | 5.8 | 5.7 | |||||||||||
| Isaacs and Vargha-Khadem (1989) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recall | 5.2 | 5.7 | 5.8 | 6.1 | 6.1 | 5.8 | 6.2 | 6.3 | 6.7 | |||||
| Miller and Vernon (1996) | ||||||||||||||
| Tone sequence recall | [ | 2.9 | ] | |||||||||||
| Morra and Camba (2009) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recall | [ | 5.3 | ] | |||||||||||
| Nichelli et al. (2001) | ||||||||||||||
| Word spana | [ 4.3 ] | 4.2 | 5.1 | 5.1 | 5.8 | 6.1 | 6.5 | |||||||
| Noël (2009) | ||||||||||||||
| Word recall | 3.5 | 3.8 | ||||||||||||
| Orsini et al. (1981) | ||||||||||||||
| Digitsa | 3.5 | 3.7 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 4.9 | 5.0 | 5.1 | |||||||
| Ottem et al. (2007) | ||||||||||||||
| Similar word recall | 2.8 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.4a | 3.6 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 3.8a | 3.9 | 3.9 | 3.8 | |
| Distinct word recall | 3.0 | 3.4 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 3.6 | 3.6a | 3.8 | 3.8 | 4.0 | 4.2a | 4.1 | 4.3 | 4.0 | |
| Pickering et al. (1998) | ||||||||||||||
| Letter recall | 3.2 | 4.0 | ||||||||||||
| Russell et al. (1996) | ||||||||||||||
| Short word recall, verbal report | 4.0 | |||||||||||||
| Short word recall, pointing | 3.8 | |||||||||||||
| Long word recall, verbal report | 3.4 | |||||||||||||
| Long word recall, pointing | 3.4 | |||||||||||||
| Wynn and Coolidge (2009) | ||||||||||||||
| Digit recall | 6.1 | |||||||||||||
| Zuber et al. (2009) | ||||||||||||||
| Letter recall | [ | 4.3 | ] | |||||||||||
Brackets indicate data derived from age groups spanning more than 1 year. For complete details of which experiments and conditions were included from each paper, as well as specifics of mean ages and ranges and full citations, see Appendix.
aThese results are averaged across experiments, conditions, or groups presented within the same paper, as comparable methods were used.
bPrecise values were not presented in text; therefore, estimates are derived from the data figure(s) presented.
cThese values are estimated from reviews of multiple other studies; see reference for details.