The fundamental role of memory systems in children’s writing skills

Abstract

Academic skill learning involves different memory systems. Procedural memory needs repetition, while episodic memories are formed from single events and concepts are stored as associative networks within semantic memory. During writing, various cognitive, phonological and motor processes are executed through working memory; whereas long-term memory provides the knowledge that will be recovered during textual production. Proper functioning of these memory systems -and neural substrates such as hippocampus and temporal cortical areas- are related to effectiveness of composing a text. Recovery of stored knowledge is involved in the course of expressive fluency, allowing the integration of the semantic components. Children who can divide attention and control processes through working memory, are more effective in writing text. During writing, working memory manipulates and keeps linguistic symbols online; the phonological loop admits and retains verbal information and performs a review that allows preserving the representations by commanding the lexical, syntactic and semantic processes. In this chapter, we will refer to the theoretical contribution of long-term and working memory systems to children’s writing skills, we will examine the neural substrates and cognitive development of these systems and we will present empirical evidence of their role in high and low-level components of the writing process.