Age, gesture span, and dissociations among component subsystems of workingmemory

Working memory was examined in old and young adults using a series of span tasks, inducting the forward versions of the visual-spatial and digit span tasks from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised, and comparable hand gesture a nd visual design span tasks. The observation that the young participants pe rformed significantly better on all the tasks except digit span suggested t hat aging has an impact on some component subsystems ol working memory but not others. Analyses of intercorrelations in span performance supports the dissociation among three component subsystems, one for auditory verbal info rmation (the articulatory loop), one for visual-spatial information (visual -spatial scratch-pail), and one for hand/body postural configuration. (C) 2 000 Academic Press.