A common attentional component is needed for feature binding, running digit span, and visual short-term memory tasks, while phonological storage is separate¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2016 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Model comparisons and local fit analyses indicate a shared attentional factor underlies feature binding, running digit span, and visual short-term memory, with phonological storage and a task-manipulation executive component separate. → Gray Shelley 2016

Evidence¶

Gray Shelley 2016¶

Gray Shelley, Green Samuel, Alt Mary, Hogan Tiffany P., Kuo Trudy, Brinkley Shara, Cowan Nelson. (2016). The Structure of Working Memory in Young Children and Its Relation to Intelligence. Journal of Memory and Language. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5157932/

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Summary structural finding from the CFA and SEM analyses of 13 tasks in 168 children: the results place constraints on both models, indicating "a common attentional component is needed for feature binding, running digit span, and visual short-term memory tasks."

"A common attentional component is needed for feature binding, running digit span, and visual short-term memory tasks; phonological storage is separate, as is a component of central executive processing involved in task manipulation."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Binding tasks showed no separate episodic buffer faculty, loading instead with visuospatial tasks or the focus of attention — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Central executive and focus of attention factors were highly correlated but statistically distinct, warranting separate factors in young children — related
• Digit span running loaded on the focus of attention factor rather than the phonological factor, supporting Cowan's claim that running span performance reflects attentional capacity — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• The focus of attention factor was the only significant predictor of both fluid reasoning and visual processing intelligence when all three working memory factors were entered — related
• Cowan's three-factor embedded processes model fit young children's working memory data slightly better than Baddeley and Hitch's three-factor model and decisively better than Baddeley's four-factor episodic buffer model — related
• Extensive Chinese logographic literacy training is associated with higher visuospatial short-term storage that does not generalize to phonological storage — related
• Small between-task relative to within-task interference in dual-task studies supports functional separation of phonological and visuospatial working memory, and newer experiments led Cowan's group to add specialized verbal and visual resources to the embedded-processes account — related
• Correlations between performance on different intellectual tasks fail to reach 1.00, indicating specialization of intelligence — related
• The reviewer concludes the advantage of a wide attention span should be made available to young readers through special training in the early grades — related