Influencing Factors And Improvement Methods Of Working Memory Capacity For Movements In Children And Adolescents

Body movement is an important medium for interpersonal communication,a means to improve cognitive ability,and a way to maintain health.Uncovering how body movement information is stored and processed can help improve quality of life.Working memory for movements(WMM)is a cognitive system that temporarily stores and processes body movement information.The amount of body movement that this system can store is referred to as the working memory capacity for movements(WMM capacity).Previous studies have revealed WMM capacity and its influencing factors.However,three aspects remain to be explored.First.previous studies revealed the WMM capacity in adults,but not in children and adolescents.It is necessary to explore and compare the WMM capacity of children and adolescents to improve their quality of life.Second,previous studies have revealed material-dependent influences on WMM capacity.Exploring material-independent influences and how they work is more relevant than material-dependent influences to reveal how WMM processes information and to understand the human motor cognitive system at a deeper level.Therefore,it is worthwhile to focus on material-independent influences.Based on the therory of levels of processing(Craik & Lockhart,1972),analyzed from the processing of limb movements,imitation ability and cognitive control functions of the central executive(shifting,updating,and inhibition)may affect WMM capacity;this possibility needs to be tested.Third,training influences can help improve WMM capacity;however,previous studies have not conducted training work.In addition,influences can only improve WMM capacity with a certain level of training,and it is necessary to explore the intensity of such training.Based on the above three aspects,this paper focuses on the WMM capacity of children and adolescents,firstly exploring their age characteristics,then detecting the influencing mechanisms of imitation ability and cognitive control functions of the central executive on them,and finally exploring the facilitation of one-month influencing factor training on them.The first part(Study 1)explored age characteristics of WMM capacity in children and adolescents.The results showed that the groups with the greatest WMM capacity in descending order were adolescence(14-17 years),preadolescence(10-12 years),childhood(8-9 years),and early childhood(5-6 years),and all differences were statistically significant;no significant differences between adolescence and early adulthood(20-22 years)were observed.The second part(Study 2 and Study 3)explored the effects of imitation ability and cognitive control functions of the central executive on WMM capacity.The results of Study 2showed that imitation ability positively predicted WMM capacity in early childhood,childhood,preadolescence,adolescence,and early adulthood.The shifting,updating,and inhibition functions of the central executive positively predicted WMM capacity in early childhood.Only the inhibition function positively predicted WMM capacity in childhood,preadolescence,and adolescence.Only the shifting function positively predicted WMM capacity in early adulthood.In addition,imitation ability and the inhibition function of the central executive moderated the age characteristics of WMM capacity revealed by Study 1.The results of Study 3 showed that WMM capacity declined in childhood,preadolescence,and adolescence when the inhibition function of the central executive was occupied by an inhibition task during the encoding or retrieval stage(Study 3a);the WMM capacity in early adulthood was reduced when the shifting function of the central executive was occupied by a shifting task during the encoding or retrieval stage(Study 3b).The findings of Studies 2 and 3suggest that the positive effect of imitation ability(acting on the encoding stage)on WMM capacity is consistent across age groups.WMM capacity at different developmental stages is influenced by different cognitive control functions(of the central executive)that affect WMM capacity by influencing movement encoding and movement retrieval.The third part(Studies 4 and 5),based on the study results of the second part,explored whether one month of training on the influencing factors for children and adolescents in each age group improved their WMM capacity.Results showed that one-month training on imitation ability increased WMM capacity in early childhood,childhood,preadolescence,and adolescence(Study 4);one-month training on the inhibition function of the central executive increased WMM capacity in childhood,preadolescence,and adolescence(Study 5);children in preadolescence benefited most from both types of training.In conclusion,(1)WMM capacity in children and adolescents varies with age,with childhood and preadolescence being periods of rapid growth and adolescence being the plateau period when early adulthood levels are reached;this age characteristic is modulated by imitation ability and the inhibition function of the central executive.(2)Imitation ability and the three cognitive control functions of the central executive influence WMM capacity,their effects vary across age groups.(3)One-month imitation ability training and one-month central executive(the inhibition function)training are methods to improve WMM capacity in children and adolescents,and their effectiveness varies with age.These findings shed light on the age characteristics and intrinsic influences on WMM capacity in children and adolescents,the links between age characteristics and intrinsic influences,and ways to increase this capacity.Therefore,these findings contribute to a further understanding of the storage and processing mechanisms of WMM and guide theoretical research and practical training in movement-related fields for a better quality of life.