Читать книгу Lifespan Development - Tara L. Kuther - Страница 372

Young children simply get better at thinking. Recall from Chapter 5 that working memory is where all thinking or information processing takes place. Working memory consists of a short-term store (short-term memory), a processor, and a control mechanism known as the central executive, responsible for executive function (Baddeley, 2016; Miyake & Friedman, 2012). Children get better at holding information in working memory, manipulating it, inhibiting irrelevant stimuli, and planning, which allows them to set and achieve goals (Carlson, Zelazo, & Faja, 2013).

Short-term memory is commonly assessed by a memory span task in which individuals are asked to recall a series of unrelated items (such as numbers) presented at a rate of about 1 per second. The greatest lifetime improvements on memory span tasks occur in early childhood. In a classic study, 2- to 3-year-old children could recall about two digits, increasing to about five items at age 7, but only increasing another two digits, to seven, by early adulthood (Bjorklund & Myers, 2015).

As their short-term memory increases, young children are able to manipulate more information in working memory and become better at planning, considering the steps needed to complete a particular act and carrying them out to achieve a goal (Rueda, 2013). Preschoolers can create and abide by a plan to complete tasks that are familiar and not too complex, such as systematically searching for a lost object in a yard (Wellman, Somerville, & Haake, 1979). But they have difficulty with more complex tasks. Young children have difficulty deciding where to begin and how to proceed to complete a task in an orderly way (Ristic & Enns, 2015). When they plan, young children often skip important steps. One reason why young children get better at attention, memory, and cognitive tasks is because they get better at inhibiting impulses to engage in task-irrelevant actions and can keep focused on a task.