Schooling Duration Rather Than Chronological Age Predicts Working Memory Between 6 and 7 Years: Memory Maestros Study

Gehan Roberts; Jon Quach; Fiona Mensah; Susan Gathercole; Lisa Gold; Peter Anderson; Megan Spencer-Smith; Melissa Wake

Journal article

Schooling Duration Rather Than Chronological Age Predicts Working Memory Between 6 and 7 Years: Memory Maestros Study

Gehan Roberts, Jon Quach, Fiona Mensah, Susan Gathercole, Lisa Gold, Peter Anderson, Megan Spencer-Smith, Melissa Wake

JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL AND BEHAVIORAL PEDIATRICS | LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS | Published : 2015

DOI: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000121

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Low working memory (WM) is strongly linked with poor academic outcomes. WM capacity increases across childhood but how exposure to school is associated with WM development is not known. We aimed to determine extent to which chronological age and schooling duration are associated with WM at the population level. METHODS: In 2012, children in Grade 1 (the second year of formal schooling in Victoria, Australia) from 44 schools in metropolitan Melbourne were recruited. Assessments occurred over the entire school year, with schools quasi-randomly allocated to one of the 4 school terms. WM (primary outcome) was measured using 2 subtests from the computerized Automated Working Memory Ass..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Melissa Wake Author Paediatrics Royal Children's Hospital

Fiona Mensah Author Paediatrics Royal Children's Hospital

Gehan Roberts Author Paediatrics Royal Children's Hospital

Jon Quach Author Melbourne Graduate School of Education

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Grants

Awarded by National Health Medical Research Council in Australia

Awarded by NHMRC Health Practitioner Research Fellowship

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Awarded by NHMRC

Awarded by MRC

Awarded by Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

Supported through a project grant from the National Health Medical Research Council (Project Grant 1005317) in Australia. The researchers acknowledge their own salary funding as follows: G. Roberts-NHMRC Health Practitioner Research Fellowship 607384; J. Quach-Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Award (DE140100751); M. Wake-NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship 1046518; L. Gold-NHMRC Early Career Fellowship 1035100; P. Anderson-NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship 628371; F. Mensah-NHMRC Early Csareer Fellowship 1037449. The Murdoch Childrens Research Institute research is supported by the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Program.