Working Memory Development

Abstract

Working memory refers to the mental workspace that allows us to temporarily hold and manipulate information in order to carry out day‐to‐day thinking and reasoning tasks. The well‐established working memory model, with its four separate components (central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer), highlights that working memory is a system, with each of the different components contributing to ongoing storage and processing. The working memory model has underpinned a great deal of developmental research in the past several decades, revealing how each component of the model develops during childhood, and emphasizing that the overall structure of working memory is similar in children and adults. A growing literature has also examined working memory in children with atypical development (such as developmental language disorder or dyslexia), revealing different profiles of working memory strengths and weaknesses. The working‐memory model, therefore, offers a helpful theoretical framework to guide research on children with both typical and atypical development.