Research title: Working memory assessments at school entry as longitudinal predictors of National Curriculum attainment levels

Researchers: Susan E. Gathercole, Leanne Brown, and Susan J. Pickering

Published: Educational and Child Psychology

This was a longitudinal study that tracked 54 students in the UK between the ages of 4-7. The researchers aimed to see how early levels of working memory capacity were able to predict scores for the first standardized national curriculum test administered to all children attending state schools in the UK at age 7.

The researchers found that working memory scores taken at school entry were significant predictors of the children’s success in literacy, but not math, at the first standardized national curriculum assessment at age 7.