Working Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood: What Develops?

Abstract The influence of social communicative activities on the emergence of working memory capacity in infants and young children is not well understood. On one hand, working memory capacity is thought to be an attentional executive resource that resides within the psychology of the individual. However, the complexity of children's social worlds sets the attentional demands that, in turn, require children to draw on working memory resources. Therefore, the issue is not whether working memory develops, but how does it develop and what are the influences that mediate the course of this development? The chapter begins with a discussion of constructivist theories and information processing models of an executive working memory system. Findings from studies of brain activity in infants are then presented to affirm that working memory is available to children early in the lifespan. The remaining discussion describes how social communication potentially influences the course of working memory development.