Working memory strategies in children aged 7–10 years

While working memory strategies are well documented in adults, little is known about the use and effectiveness of these strategies in children. This study examined self-reported strategy use in children aged 7-10 years on working memory tasks, including those with demands related to everyday and classroom activities. Participants were a subset of 63 children from a working memory training trial in primary school-aged children that found no intervention effects up to 6 months post intervention. At the immediate post-intervention follow-up, children completed five working memory tasks: two backward span tasks (letters and digits), two following instructions tasks (letters and objects), and one n-back task (objects). Children then participated in a semi-structured one-on-one interview about the strategies they used on each task. Strategy use was prevalent across all working memory tasks and was generally associated with superior performance. A range of task-general and task-specific strategies were reported. Participants tended to rely on a single rather than multiple strategies, and more often favored a manipulation rather than maintenance strategy type. While certain strategies, the number of strategies used, and strategy type were linked to superior performance on select working memory tasks, the associations were not consistent across all tasks. These results show that strategic behavior during middle childhood, as in adults, is linked to performance on working memory tasks related to everyday and classroom activities.