ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Article Critique



Article Critique

Introduction

The article I have selected for the article critique is “Short-Term Memory, Working Memory, and Executive Functioning in Preschoolers: Longitudinal Predictors of Mathematical Achievement at Age 7 Years”, written by Rebecca Bull (Bull & Scerif, 2001). It is interested in areas of cognitive psychology, in particular the role of short-term memory, working memory and executive processes in the development of pre-school children's mathematical and reading skills which prompted her to pursue this avenue for her PhD. Published in Developmental Neuropsychology in 2008, the cited article above explores whether measures of short-term memory, working memory, and executive functioning in preschool children predict later proficiency in academic achievement at 7 years of age.

Article Summary

Psychologists have been trying to understand the factors that establish success and failure in children in different educational fields for many years. Some main psychological functions that have been found to play important roles in educational achievement are short-term memory, working memory, and executive functioning (Baddeley, 1986). This article provides the reader with an up-to-date review of the research that identifies how short-term memory, working memory, and executive functioning relate to academic attainment in reading and mathematics. The independent variable(s) of the study are short-term memory, working memory, and executive functioning and the dependent variable is their relation to academic attainment in reading and mathematics.

The study examined a sample of 124 children (54 girls and 50 boys) attending nursery schools in Aberdeenshire who were tested on a battery of executive function and short-term and working memory measures from standardized, norm-referenced school-based assessments which, were taken on entry to primary school and at the end of the first and third year of primary school. Of the 124 only 104 made it to the end of the study (Baddeley & Gathercole, 1999). The mean age of children upon entry was 4 years and 6 months and at the end of the third year was 7 years of age (Bull, 2008).

Research questions(s) or Problem(s)

Bull's research article works on a single and primary research question: Can short- term memory, working memory, and central executive functions measured in preschoolers be used to identify those children who go on to develop specific difficulties in mathematics or more general difficulties in learning both reading and math? This single and primary research question is examined through four primary tasks (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974):

T1: Central executive tasks. Shape School. The Shape School was developed by Espy, designed to assess different aspects of executive control in young children by using bright colorful, affectively engaging stimuli presented in an age appropriate format of a story book.

T2: Tower of London (Korkman, Kirk, & Kemp, 1998). This task uses a piece of apparatus with three pegs on which three colored balls can be placed. Each peg is a different size allowing only a certain number of balls to be placed on each peg. The task is a measure of children's ability to make moves that initially go against the end-goal state ...