ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the research conducted in the laboratory over the past 25 years in aspects of Working Memory (WM), examined in adults of different ages. Path analysis models suggested that a large proportion of the age differences in WM mediated through components postulated to reflect processing efficiency and coordination effectiveness. Reanalyses of these data, conducted by Salthouse, identify the proportional contributions of the different components to individual differences in WM. A key aspect of this conceptualization of WM is that aspects of processing efficiency or effectiveness are at least as important as aspects of information storage, particularly with respect to age differences in WM. External relations refer to relations of WM measures with cognitive abilities, in the role of a mediator of the cross-sectional age-cognition relations, or other types of correlational analyses. However, the conclusion still be considered tentative because, questions about the construct validity of WM, the WM construct is distinct from other constructs such as fluid ability (Gf).
