ERIC Number: EJ1225846
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Aug
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1551-6709
EISSN: N/A
Cognitive Offloading: Structuring the Environment to Improve Children's Working Memory Task Performance
Berry, Ed D. J.; Allen, Richard J.; Mon-Williams, Mark; Waterman, Amanda H.
Cognitive Science, v43 n8 e12770 Aug 2019
Research has shown that adults can engage in cognitive offloading, whereby internal processes are offloaded onto the environment to help task performance. Here, we investigate an application of this approach with children, in particular children with poor working memory. Participants were required to remember and recall sequences of colors by placing colored blocks in the correct serial order. In one condition the blocks were arranged to facilitate cognitive offloading (i.e., grouped by color), whereas in the other condition they were arranged randomly. Across two experiments (total N = 166) the ordered condition improved task performance for children with low working memory ability. In addition, participants in Experiment 2 rated the difficulty of the two arrangements and performed a further condition in which they were given an opportunity to freely arrange the blocks before completing the task. Despite performing better in the ordered condition, children with low working memory ability did not rate the ordered arrangement as easier, nor did they choose an ordered arrangement when given the opportunity to do so. This research shows that cognitive offloading can also be a useful process in populations other than typical adults, and the implications of this work for supporting children with poor working memory are discussed.
Descriptors: Cognitive Processes, Difficulty Level, Children, Short Term Memory, Recall (Psychology), Color, Manipulative Materials, Serial Ordering, Performance Factors
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A