The role of attention in preschoolers’ working memory

•Working memory models emphasise the role of attention in adults’ maintenance.•In preschoolers, divergent conclusions emerge about the role of attention.•This study provides first evidence of the implication of attention in preschoolers.•It also shows an absence of interaction with age throughout preschool ages (4–6).•Motor activity may support working memory maintenance in preschoolers.

Recent studies showed that introducing an unfilled delay or a secondary task between encoding and recall reduces recall performance in preschoolers, whereas increasing the attentional demand of this secondary task does not. Based on these results, different authors drew opposing conclusions regarding the use of attention in preschoolers’ memory maintenance. This study aimed to bring further evidence to bear on the issue. In two experiments, recall was reduced when an unfilled delay was introduced before recall, but also when the demand of the concurrent task increased. These effects did not interact with age, although performance improved from 4 to 6 years of age. A third experiment ruled out an alternative interpretation. These findings show the role of attention in preschoolers’ working memory and raise the question of how motor activity may help memory maintenance.