Working memory development: Central executive's relationships with the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad in second and fifth grade children

The aim of this study was to examine the development of working memory's components and their relationships. Phonological loop's, visuospatial sketchpad's and central executive's efficiencies were assessed by simple and complex span tasks and executive tasks with verbal and visuospatial material. The analyses were performed on 64 second-grade and 55 fifth-grade children's data. Developmental perfomances improvement was examined according to tasks and material. Analyses of variance revealed performances improvement according to age and type of material (verbal > non verbal) for the slave system tasks and for a pan of central executive's tasks. Correlation analysis and exploratory factorial analysis suggested that slave systems would become progressively more specific and that central executive's efficiency would be dependent on this specialization. (C) 2008 Societe francaise de psychologie. Publie par Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits reserves.