Table 4.

Estimates of working memory capacity using complex and/or dual-tasks.

	Age (years)
	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
Bayliss et al. (2005a)
Verbal-verbal					[	3.7	]
Verbal-visuo-spatial					[	3.1	]
Visuo-spatial-verbal					[	4.4	]
Visuo-spatial-visuo-spatial					[	3.1	]
Bayliss et al. (2005b)
Verbal-verbal				[		3.1			]
Visuo-spatial-visuo-spatial				[		3.8			]
Case et al. (1982)
Counting span recall				1.7	2.3	2.5	3.0	2.8	3.2	3.5
Cowan et al. (2011)
Shape-color-location recognition
Silent trialsa				[	1.9		]		[	2.5	]
Name color trialsa				[	2.4		]		[	3.0	]
Say “wait” trialsa				[	1.5		]		[	2.1	]
Cowan et al. (2005)
Counting span recallb						2.8		3.6		4.0
Listening (sentence) span recallb						1.8		2.5		2.7
Running (digit) span recallb						2.1		2.6		2.7
Ignored speech (digits) recall						2.0		2.0
Cowan et al. (2006b)
Digit (auditory) and letter (visual) recall
Attend auditory								3.6
Attend visual								1.7
Ignore auditory								3.4
Ignore visual								1.7
Cowan et al. (2010:1]
Shape-color-location recognition; two shapes
1-Shapea					[1.5 ]				[1.9 ]
100% Trialsa					[1.3 ]				[1.8 ]
80% Trialsa					[0.8 ]				[1.5 ]
50% Trialsa					[0.5 ]				[1.3 ]
20% Trialsa					[0.4 ]				[1.0 ]
Shape-color-location recognition; three shapes
1-Shapea					[1.5 ]				[2.5 ]
100% Trialsa					[1.3 ]				[2.2 ]
80% Trialsa					[0.5 ]				[1.5 ]
50% Trialsa					[0.5 ]				[1.0 ]
20% Trialsa					[0.4 ]				[0.8 ]
Cowan et al. (1999)
Unattended digits (visual dual-task)a				[	2.4	]	[	3.1	]
Cowan et al. (2006c)
Counting span recall						3.6			4.1
Running span recall						2.1			2.8
de Ribaupierre and Bailleux (1994)
Color/location recall			1.1	1.4	1.7	1.8	2.0	2.5	2.8	3.1	2.9	3.0
de Ribaupierre et al. (1989)
Color/location recall		0.6	1.1	1.3	1.6	1.9	2.4	2.6
Halford et al. (1994)
Experiment 1
Word order, subtraction dual-task							3.3
Word order, reading dual-task							3.6
Experiment 2
Digit recall, integrated condition						[	3.1		]
Digit recall, non-integrated condition						[	3.2		]
Experiment 3
Digit recall, counting dual-taska			1.8				2.7			3.8
Experiment 4
Digit recall, forward counting dual-task						2.2				2.8
Digit recall, backward counting dual-task						1.9				2.7
Digit recall, story listening dual-task						3.4				2.6
Hutton and Towse (2001)
Digit recall, forward with suppression						3.7			4.5
Digit recall, backward with suppression						3.5			4.2
Counting recall, forward						3.3			4.6
Counting recall, backward						2.4			3.6
Morra (1994)
Counting span recallb				2.1	2.4	2.7	3.1	3.8
Color/location recallb				2.0	2.5	2.7	3.2	3.9
Morra and Camba (2009)
Counting recall						[	3.4		]
Russell et al. (1996)
Counting span recall (simple)				4.4
Counting span recall (complex)				3.6
Odd-man-out position recall (simple)				4.2
Odd-man-out position recall (complex)				3.7
Sum span recall (simple)				4.2
Sum span recall (complex)				3.2
Towse and Hitch (1995)
Counting span recall (features)a				2.8	3.5	4.7		4.2
Counting span recall (conjunction)a				2.6	2.7	3.3		3.6
Counting span recall (feature-slow)a				2.6	2.8	3.3		3.8
Towse et al. (1998)
Counting array recall (small first)a				2.6	2.7		4.1	4.1
Counting array recall (large first)a				2.3	2.5		3.7	3.9
Operation span recall (short)a,b							3.3	3.9	3.8	4.4
Operation span recall (long)a,b						2.5	3.4	2.9	3.5
Reading span recall (short)a						2.9	2.9	3.2
Reading span recall (long)a						2.2	2.7	2.9
Towse et al. (2002)
Short interpolation task (6 s)
Operation span recall, parity dual-taska									2.0
Operation span recall, accuracy dual-taska									2.2
Operation span recall, parity, and accuracya									1.9
Long interpolation task (15 s)
Operation span recall, parity dual-taska									1.7
Operation span recall, accuracy dual-taska									1.8
Operation span recall, parity, and accuracya									1.2

Brackets indicate data derived from age groups spanning more than 1 year. Tasks are not divided between verbal and visuo-spatial domains because many included components from each system. 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.

^aPrecise values were not presented in text; therefore, estimates are derived from the data figure presented.

^bThese results are averaged across two experiments presented in the same paper.