This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Lowe, J. Articles by Watterberg, K. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Lowe, J. Articles by Watterberg, K. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Early Working Memory in Children Born With Extremely Low Birth Weight: Assessed by Object Permanence

Department of Pediatrics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, jrlowe{at}unm.edu

Peggy C. MacLean, MS

Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Michele L. Shaffer, PhD

Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania

Kristi Watterberg, MD

Department of Pediatrics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Object permanence is considered the earliest method for assessing working memory. Factors affecting object permanence performance in a sample of two hundred and thirty-three 18- to 22-month olds born with extremely low birth weight were examined. It was hypothesized that object permanence would be directly related to emotional and attention regulation, that children with lower birth weight and higher illness severity would have more difficulty on the object permanence task, and that no ethnic/racial differences would be found, as this is considered a culturally unbiased task. Attainment of object permanence had a significant positive association with emotional and attention regulation, even after controlling the medical severity and socioeconomic factors. More girls than boys passed the object permanence items. There was no ethnic/racial difference on object permanence. Our findings indicate that object permanence may be a culturally fair way of assessing development, and emotional and attention regulation are potential avenues of intervention for such skill.

Key Words: early working memory • object permanence • extremely low birth weight

Journal of Child Neurology, Vol. 24, No. 4, 410-415 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0883073808324533


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?