The capacity of working memory is limited and undergoes important developmental changes during childhood. One proposed reason for the expansion of working memory capacity during childhood is the emergence and increased efficiency of active maintenance mechanisms, such as that of refreshing. Refreshing is a proposed mechanism to keep information active in working memory by bringing memory items back into the focus of attention. One prevalent view is that the spontaneous use of refreshing emerges around the age of 7 and becomes more efficient during middle childhood and beyond. Using a novel approach to examine refreshing in children in Experiment 1, we show, against common conceptions, that simply giving free time in a basic working memory task does not lead to spontaneous refreshing in 9–12-year-old children. Instead, their focus of attention appears to linger on the last-presented memory item, even when ample time for refreshing is provided. Experimentally imposing the use of refreshing in Experiment 2, however, showed that children in this age range are able to switch their focus of attention away from the last-presented item in switch to another memory item. Thus, the current study uncovers that children in middle childhood do not always spontaneously switch attention away from the last-presented memory item to refresh the entire list, even though they are able to switch attention away from the last-presented memory item when instructed to do so. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

中文翻译：

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使用注意力维持工作记忆中的信息：学龄儿童自发性刷新的发展调查

工作记忆的容量是有限的，在儿童时期会发生重要的发展变化。儿童时期工作记忆容量扩大的一个提出的原因是主动维护机制的出现和效率的提高，例如刷新. 刷新是一种提议的机制，通过将记忆项目带回注意力的焦点来保持工作记忆中的信息活跃。一种流行的观点是，提神的自发使用出现在 7 岁左右，并且在童年中期及以后变得更加有效。在实验 1 中，我们使用一种新颖的方法来检查儿童的提神情况，与常见的观念相反，我们表明，仅仅在基本的工作记忆任务中提供空闲时间并不会导致 9-12 岁儿童的自发提神。相反，他们的注意力似乎停留在最后呈现的记忆项目上，即使提供了充足的刷新时间。然而，实验性地在实验 2 中强加了刷新的使用，表明这个年龄段的孩子能够将注意力从最后呈现的项目转移到另一个记忆项目。因此，目前的研究发现，处于童年中期的儿童并不总是自发地将注意力从最后呈现的记忆项目转移到刷新整个列表，即使他们能够在被指示时将注意力从最后呈现的记忆项目转移这样做。讨论了这些发现的理论意义。