The Structure of Working Memory and Its Relationship with Intelligence in Japanese Children

Ikeda, Yoshifumi; Kita, Yosuke; Oi, Yuhei; Okuzumi, Hideyuki; Lanfranchi, Silvia; Pulina, Francesca; Mammarella, Irene Cristina; Allen, Katie; Giofrè, David

Abstract

There is a host of research on the structure of working memory (WM) and its relationship with intelligence in adults, but only a few studies have involved children. In this paper, several different WM models were tested on 170 Japanese school children (from 7 years and 5 months to 11 years and 6 months). Results showed that a model distinguishing between modalities (i.e., verbal and spatial WM) fitted the data well and was therefore selected. Notably, a bi-factor model distinguishing between modalities, but also including a common WM factor, presented with a very good fit, but was less parsimonious. Subsequently, we tested the predictive power of the verbal and spatial WM factors on fluid and crystallized intelligence. Results indicated that the shared contribution of WM explained the largest portion of variance of fluid intelligence, with verbal and spatial WM independently explaining a residual portion of the variance. Concerning crystallized intelligence, however, verbal WM explained the largest portion of the variance, with the joint contribution of verbal and spatial WM explaining the residual part. The distinction between verbal and spatial WM could be important in clinical settings (e.g., children with atypical development might struggle selectively on some WM components) and in school settings (e.g., verbal and spatial WM might be differently implicated in mathematical achievement).

Citation

Ikeda, Y., Kita, Y., Oi, Y., Okuzumi, H., Lanfranchi, S., Pulina, F., …Giofrè, D. (2023). The Structure of Working Memory and Its Relationship with Intelligence in Japanese Children. Journal of Intelligence, 11(8), Article 167. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11080167

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 14, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Aug 18, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-08
• Deposit Date: Nov 8, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 8, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Intelligence
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 8
• Article Number: 167
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11080167
• Keywords: Cognitive Neuroscience; Developmental and Educational Psychology; Education; Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1901237