[in Japanese]

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This research investigated the roles of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory among 2nd and 3rd graders (N＝160) when posing subtraction problems in “Combine” and “Compare” scenes. The problem in the Combine scene was concerned with the relationship between a set and a subset. The Compare scene problem was concerned with the relationship between two different sets. Children with higher scores for verbal working memory posed the subtraction problem with appropriate expressions and information congruent with the pictures presented in the Combine scene, in comparison to children with lower scores for verbal working memory. Children with higher scores for visuo-spatial working memory posed the subtraction problem with appropriate expressions and information congruent with the pictures presented in the Compare scene, compared to children with lower visuo-spatial working memory scores. These results suggest that verbal and visuo-spatial working memories play different roles for children's understanding of Combine and Compare scenes, and that different approaches are required to provide instruction on problems consisting of these two types of scenes.

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Working memory facilitates cognitive activities. Of the important cognitive activities within our daily lives, social activity has recently attracted attention in terms of the specific type of working memory; namely, social working memory. This paper reviews various findings from prior studies that emphasize both the neurological and behavioral differences between social and cognitive (canonical) working memory; findings that underscore the significance of the social working-memory construct. However, it is also evident that there has been a dearth of comprehensive perspectives to account for the findings from previous studies. More specifically, the review identifies four topics that have not been sufficiently addressed: (a) correlations among social working memory tasks; (b) theories concerning the relationship between social working memory and social cognition; (c) distinctions and/or similarities between affective versus social working memory; and (d) the nature of the representations within social working memory. Accordingly, this paper recommends tackling these issues as directions for future research. In focusing on these aspects, it is possible that future studies might elaborate the concept of social working memory and provide a perspective capable of integrating the diverse findings.

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One of the main functions of working memory involves keeping in mind a plan and purpose during a task. Learning is a purpose-oriented activity and supported by the function of working memory. Working memory is measured through tasks a participant is required to memorize and manage using speech or visual-spatial information. The capacity of working memory increases linearly from infancy to adolescence. However, students with developmental disorders could have some issues with working memory for different reasons. As working memory is the main factor supporting learning language and mathematics, students with issues related to working memory would also have issues concerning learning language and mathematics. Many researchers now believe that training in working memory is fruitless. Therefore, it is important to recognize the characteristics of children with specific developmental issues by assessing working memory and providing appropriate support

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Previous research indicates that working memory is closely related to learning, and that children with developmental disorders often have problems in working memory. In this study, we assessed the working memory of 372 elementary and junior high school students with some difficulties of learning on the web. We analyzed the relationships between the domains of learning difficulties and the dimensions of working memory: a verbal short-term memory, a verbal working memory, a visuo-spatial short-term memory, and a visuo-spatial working memory. A low score of each dimension of working memory has significant relations with the learning of specific skills and knowledge in Japanese and mathematics. Children with learning difficulties did not necessarily have poor working memory. Some children seemed to have the difficulties of learning because of poor working memory, some did because of the characteristics of disorders, and others did because of the interaction of both poor working memory and the characteristics of disorders.

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This study explores the relationship between Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and working memory (WM) capacity. It has been hypothesized that autism and Asperger Syndrome lie on a continuum of social-communication disabilities. According to the hypothesis, Asperger Syndrome is intermediate between autism and normality. The problem with WM capacity in autism is not in phonological WM, but rather in visuo-spatial WM. A similar pattern of WM capacity can also be observed in normally developing adults with high-AQ scores. Accordingly, this study examines the relationships between AQ in normally developing adults and WM capacities in terms of the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad, and the central executive. The results show that a high-AQ group had less capacity for visuo-spatial WM than a low-AQ group. Among all participants, a negative correlation was found between AQ and visuo-spatial WM capacity. However, no differences were observed in the capacities of the phonological loop and the central executive between the high- and low-AQ groups. These results suggest that high-AQ individuals among normally developing adults exhibit a pattern that is a cognitive characteristic of autism.

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[in Japanese]

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Working memory plays a central role in the learning of language and mathematics, and children with learning disorders often have problems in working memory. It is important to find out students with a problem in working memory and make an intervention for them as early as possible. Therefore, in this study, we made working memory tests that students at elementary and junior high school could conduct with a computer in a group. The working memory tests were composed of eight tasks, each two of which assessed four dimensions of working memory: verbal short-term, verbal working, visuo-spatial short-term, and viso-spatial working memories. The scores of the tests were highly correlated with those of AWMA (Alloway, 2007), and the WM Rating Scale（Alloway, Gathercole, & Kirkwood, 2009）. Students attending public elementary and junior high school located around Japan conducted the tests, and we analyzed the data. The data did not fit the model supposing an independent factor of the central executive, but fit the model with only verbal and visual factors. The tests we made seemed to reflect the function of the central executive highly.

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The purpose of this study was to develop the working memory test used new and simple style paper test. First, we made the original version paper tests which were composed with new working memory tests following: new edition trail making task, high-middle-low task, mental rotation task, and etc. Next, these new tests were compared with the old working memory tests which were operation span task, readingspan task and etc. University students (N=85 )participated in both tests. The factor analysis of the original version paper test identified three factors labeled "switching attention function", " division and selective attention function ", and "control function". Based on the results from the structural equation modeling, there was positive and quite high correlation in its scores between the original working memory test and the other old working memory test. These results suggested that the original paper version test was simple, easy and efficient in substitution for the other old working memory test.

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Working memory is a set of processes that holds a limited amount of information temporarily for use in ongoing cognitive processing. Recent research has indicated that working memory is not only related to difficulties of individuals with intellectual disabilities; it might also play a causal role in intellectual disabilities. The present paper discusses the current state and future directions of research on the working memory of individuals with intellectual disabilities. The results of the present review of the working memory literature in intellectual disabilities indicate that the characteristics of the verbal and visuospatial working memory of individuals with intellectual disabilities differ depending on the etiology of their intellectual disability. Attentional control in working memory is also suggested as a common deficit in individuals with intellectual disabilities. Issues raised in earlier research and directions for future research that are discussed include underlying mechanisms of the characteristics of the working memory of individuals with intellectual disabilities, training working memory, and the relationship between working memory and long-term memory.

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[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to measure the verbal working memory capacity of elderly subjects in the community by a reading span test (RST) of Japanese. [Subjects] The subjects were 11 elderly females aged 72.2 ± 5.8 years. [Method] Frontal lobe activity was evaluated during this test on the basis of changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO₂) measured by near-infrared spectroscopy. [Results] Significant increases in HbO₂ were observed during 2-sentence tasks from task 1, immediately after initiation of the RST, to task 5. The increases were maintained until the end of the RST. [Conclusion] These results show that activity in the frontal lobe increases during the RST in the elderly, and working memory participates in the cognitive function of the frontal lobe.

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[in Japanese]

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Reading and writing are basic skills for learning. Research has revealed that working memory is related to learning these skills. In Study 1, we developed an assessment test for working memory and administered it to first graders at the start of primary school. The test comprised non-word comparison tasks that assessed verbal working memory and visual array comparison tasks that evaluated visuospatial working memory. Children with scores below the 10th percentile obtained higher ratings on the Working Memory Rating Scale and lower scores in phonological awareness skills than children with scores above the 10th percentile. This reveals the validity of the test. In Study 2, we proposed that the first graders' assessment test scores would predict these children's reading and writing performance 1–2 years later. The working memory assessment test was expected to help identify and support children who may experience future difficulties in reading and writing.

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[in Japanese]

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The think-aloud method requires participants to verbalize all their thoughts while solving problems. This study examines the influences of the think-aloud protocol on task performance and the relationship between individual differences in utterance levels and working memory capacities. In the experiment, participants solved a version of the Remote Associates Test （RAT） where they were instructed to verbalize their thoughts aloud while required to think of a single Chinese character associated with several presented Chinese characters. The participants were subsequently divided into low and high working-memory capacity groups based on the results of a verbal working-memory span task. The results showed that the degree of utterances decreased with increases in task difficulty in the high working-memory capacity participants but increased in the low working-memory capacity participants. This finding indicates that verbalizing aloud while executing a task may differ as a function of working-memory capacity and as task difficulty varies. Moreover, the results also showed that response times tended to be longer with verbalizations, which indicates that thinking-aloud may interfere with task performance.

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In this study, we examined the relationship between the instructional design of a science class in junior high school and the behavior of students in that class who had poor working memory. Three children with poor working memory and two with average working memory were selected from each of two classes and were observed in science and social science classes. One of the science classes was designed in a way that a summary of the subject matter was introduced by the teacher before the class began. The students were required to copy the contents of blackboard into their notebooks while the teacher wrote. The other science class was designed in the usual manner, in which the same teacher first posed a question to the students at first and helped them deduce the solution. In the experimental condition, it was found that students with poor working memory participated in the class activities to the same extent as students with average working memory. It was suggested that when knowledge was presented before the lesson, students with poor working memory could better understand the function of the lesson activities, which improved their participation in class.

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Relationship between spatial working memory (SWM) ability and the distortion of cognitive distance from memorized maps was investigated. In the experiment, SWM ability of the participants was assessed by the Corsi Block Test. Then they estimated distances between pairs of points on a memorized map. The number of intervening points between the two points varied from 0 to 2. The distance estimate increased with the number of intervening points independently of SWM ability. This result was the contrast to a prior research which demonstrated that the estimate of participants with high visual working memory (VWM) ability did not showed effect of intervening points, while the estimates of participants with low VWM ability showed. These results were discussed in the point that VWM more strongly related to the distance estimates that was visually memorized than SWM.

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[in Japanese]

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