PRACTITIONER REVIEW - VERBAL WORKING-MEMORY DEVELOPMENT AND ITS DISORDERS

Working memory refers to the systems responsible for the temporary sto rage and manipulation of information during the performance of cogniti ve tasks. There is a good deal of evidence that verbal short-term memo ry functions as a working memory system. We review advances in our und erstanding of the nature and limitations of verbal short-term memory a nd the reasons for its development with age, and go on to consider the common association between impairments of verbal short-term memory an d other impairments of cognitive development. We conclude by consideri ng the relationship between short-term memory development and cognitiv e development.