How semantic organization of information in Long Term Memory LTM) influences Working Memory (WM) recall in children from 6 to 12 years

The WM is a limited capacity system storing and manipulating information. The stimulus mental organization (chunking) improves the information recall (Mathy & Feldman, 2012). The semantic system can be distinguished in thematic (complementary) and categorical (based on analogy) relationships. The routine application of the categorical relationships begins around 7 years (Nelson, 1996). The impact of categorical and thematic links on the WM is still scarcely known. Five hundred thirty six participants (52% Males) of 5 age groups (average in years and months): 6;6, 7;11, 9;2, 10;8; 12;10- were submitted to a WM double task: 60 lists of 4 familiar words balanced for categorical (20), thematic (20) and arbitrary (20) links. The stimuli were arranged into sets containing an increasing number of lists; the children had to recall from 2 to 6 words, and three trials were run for each set. They were asked to listen to the words, to tap whenever they heard a digit and, after each set, to recall the last word of each list. A mixed Anova on word recall with Links as within factor and Groups as between factor showed an effect of Link: the categorical link improved word recall more than the thematic and the arbitrary ones, and of Group: the recall scores increased significantly from 6 to 12 years. An interaction Group x Link emerged: a significantly increasing recall of categorical links was observed starting from the second age group. This study showed a positive age related influence of LTM semantic system on WM, with a stronger role of categorical organization. References Mathy, F., & Feldman, J. (2012). What’s magic about magic numbers? Chunking and data compression in short-term memory. Cognition, 122, 346–62. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2011.11.003 Nelson, K. (1996). Language in Cognitive Development: The Emergence of the Mediated Mind. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.