The role of working memory in differences and school learning disorders

Neurocognitive mechanisms which allow the construction of academic concepts in formal schooling are complex. Recently the scientific community has begun to recognize the cross-sectional place of working memory as a complex cognitive function in the conceptualization of individual differences in school learning thus allowing explaining learning disabilities in various areas of knowledge. Standing aside from the traditional definition of learning disabilities and its concomitant evaluation, during the last decade many researchers have emphasized upon the relationship between working memory - viewed from the multicomponent model of Baddeley y Hitch (1974) -and school learning. Contextualized in the evolutionary theory of Geary (1999-2007) and the cultural-historical perspective of Vygotski (1934) this new perspective is explored in depth in this paper. Therefore, this article presents a review of a series of research studies that can be classified into four groups that have shown the complex relationship between working memory and learning in school, both in learning mathematics as well as reading.