Table 3.
Estimates of working memory capacity using backward span tasks.
| Age (years) |
|||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | |
| VERBAL | |||||||||||||||
| Hutton and Towse (2001) | |||||||||||||||
| Digit recall | 3.8 | 4.6 | |||||||||||||
| Isaacs and Vargha-Khadem (1989) | |||||||||||||||
| Digit recall | 3.2 | 3.6 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.0 | 4.8 | ||||||
| Morra (1994) | |||||||||||||||
| Digit recalla | 2.6 | 3.1 | 3.3 | 3.7 | 4.1 | ||||||||||
| Word recall | 2.5 | 3.1 | 3.3 | 3.5 | 3.9 | ||||||||||
| Morra and Camba (2009) | |||||||||||||||
| Digit recall | [ | 4.5 | ] | ||||||||||||
| Wynn and Coolidge (2009) | |||||||||||||||
| Digit recall | [ | 4.3 | ] | ||||||||||||
| Zuber et al. (2009) | |||||||||||||||
| Letter recall | [ | 2.5 | ] | ||||||||||||
| VISUO-SPATIAL | |||||||||||||||
| Hitch et al. (1988) | |||||||||||||||
| Line drawings, control (named)b | 1.7 | 3.0 | |||||||||||||
| Isaacs and Vargha-Khadem (1989) | |||||||||||||||
| Corsi block recall | 3.9 | 4.5 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 5.4 | 5.2 | 5.5 | ||||||
| Luciana et al. (2005) | |||||||||||||||
| Spatial span | [ 5.0] | [ 5.5] | [ | 5.9 | ] | [6.4 ] | |||||||||
| Zuber et al. (2009) | |||||||||||||||
| Corsi block recall | [ | 2.9 | ] | ||||||||||||
Brackets indicate data derived from age groups spanning more than 1 year. Results reported here were from backward versions of tasks reported in Table 1 (listed under Verbal) and Table 2 (listed under Visuo-Spatial). 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 two experiments presented in the same paper.
bPrecise values were not presented in text; therefore, estimates are derived from the data figure presented.