Working Memory Span in Sequential and Non Sequential Digital and Word Stimuli of Jordanian Students 4 through 20 Years Old

Introduction Learning is defined by cognitive theorists as a change in a person's mental structures that creates a capacity to demonstrate different behaviors. This change happens when certain stimuli, which enters our memory systems, is selected and organized for storage and retrieval (Eggen & Kauchak, 2007). Memory, which is the retention of information over time, has a great effect on a person's life, because it is the storage of all his experiences and knowledge to a degree that it can be said, personality is nothing but memory storage . Memory Storage Memory storage involves three types of memory: Sensory, working, and long term memory. Although all memory types are important because they work in an integrated way, the current study focuses on working memory, or as it is also called, the short-term memory. Working memory is defined as the ability to manipulate and store material simultaneously (Gathercole, 1999). It is a store that holds information as a person processes it, consciously, with a deliberate thinking. That is, while anyone is not aware of the contents of either sensory or long term memory until they are pulled into working memory for processing. Information in the working memory is retained for nearly thirty seconds, unless it is processed further. Its capacity, known as memory span, is limited in the range of 7 [+ or -] 2 items (Gage & Berliner, 1998; Santrock, 2008; Woolfolk, 2005). Working Memory The standard working memory model comprises three components: The central executive, phonological loop, and the visuospatial sketchpad. The latter two specialized for processing of limited amounts of information within specific domains. The central executive is capable of performing a range of high-level functions, like coordination of tasks performance, switching retrieval plans, controlled attention and maintenance of activated information from long term memory (Cowan, 2008). In a study of working memory content and functions capacity-facets, Obrauer, Sub, Shulze, Whilhelm & Wittmann (2000) found that spatial working memory content was distinct from verbal and numerical content; and at the functional dimensions: storages, transformation and coordination could not be separated. Corbin, McElroy, & Black (2010) found that a wide working memory span enables deeper information processing, in a study on eighty six participants took risky-choice tasks. Studies Review Studies about working memory, found also, that working memory span increases during the age of 8 through 24 years in both verbal and visual tasks (Papalia & Feldman, 2000; Swanson, 1999; Towse, Hitch, Hamilton, & Pirre, 2008). In these studies, verbal tasks were auditory digit and semantic association, while visual tasks were a map of a street, and a matrix of dots. Another study found that memory span increased from two digits by the age of 2 years, to five by the age of 7, and between six and seven by the age of 12 years (Dempaster, 1981; Gathercole & Peckering, 2000). In another study examined the effect of verbal and nonverbal stimuli on auditory sequential, rsesults showed that verbal sequences were produced with more accuracy than were nonverbal sequences (Jutras, Ostroff, Roy, & Gagne, 2003). These results also supported by Speech (2008) who found that recalling words is better than digits, in dual-task performance. Research showed that memory function can be affected by several factors. For example, Philipose, Alphs, Prabhakaran, & Hills (2007) demonstrated that left cortical stroke patients had a verbal working memory impairments, and right cortical stroke patients had both verbal and spatial working memory impairments . Working memory is also affected negatively by bad emotional feelings (Grays, 2001). Students can improve their working-memory efficiency, and writing rapidly if they ignore grammar and punctuation which elicit anxiety, and reduce cognitive load. …