WORKING-MEMORY IN YOUNG-CHILDREN - EVIDENCE FOR MODALITY-SPECIFICITY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CEREBRAL REORGANIZATION IN EARLY-CHILDHOOD

Digit span (DS) and visual-spatial memory span (VMS) tasks have been c onsidered indices of auditory and visual-spatial processing, respectiv ely, often classified as ''primary memory'' or ''attention''. There ha s been limited evidence for their modality specificity, however. We pr esent two children who showed visual-spatial processing deficiencies ( including VMS) and non-dominant manual inefficiency with normal visual -spatial perception, auditory-verbal processing and dominant fine manu al skills. These children support a distinction between auditory and v isual-spatial memory span. These findings are discussed with regard to a hypothesis that the unique expression of VMS is time-limited, that visual-spatial processing becomes more verbalized as children learn to read and that these behavioral changes produce a lateral shift in cor tical processing of visual-spatial information. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.