Preschoolers are well known for their poor working memory (WM) performance. This could result from goal neglect, which would hamper the setting of maintenance strategies. Previous studies have shown that preschoolers’ WM performance can be improved in game-like tasks, because they provide cues to support goal maintenance. However, in these studies, it was unclear what features of the task (either the main toy or the motor activity required by the game) provide efficient cues. The aim of the present study was to disentangle the two features to examine cue effects in 5- to 7-year-old children. No improvement of WM performance was observed when the toy was a potential goal cue, whereas the motor activity had a detrimental effect in all age groups. The latter effect could result from a distraction of attention from attention-based maintenance activities. Hence, preschoolers' poor WM performance would not be fundamentally due to goal neglect.

中文翻译：

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目标提示和运动活动会影响学龄前儿童的工作记忆吗？

学龄前儿童以其糟糕的工作记忆 (WM) 表现而闻名。这可能是由于目标疏忽造成的，这会妨碍维护策略的制定。先前的研究表明，学龄前儿童的 WM 表现可以在类似游戏的任务中得到提高，因为它们提供了支持目标维持的线索。然而，在这些研究中，不清楚任务的哪些特征（主要玩具或游戏所需的运动活动）提供了有效的线索。本研究的目的是解开这两个特征，以检查 5 至 7 岁儿童的线索效应。当玩具是潜在的目标提示时，没有观察到 WM 表现的改善，而运动活动对所有年龄组都有不利影响。后一种影响可能是由于注意力分散在基于注意力的维护活动上。因此，学龄前儿童的 WM 表现不佳从根本上不是由于目标忽视。