Interrelations between attention and verbal memory as affected by developmental age

We analyzed the relationship between several measures of attention (e.g., sustained and divided attention) and measures of verbal memory (e.g., immediate and delayed memory) in children aged 8-17 years. The attentional measures were derived from several tests of attention: Trail-Making, Digit Cancellation, Digit-Symbol, and Digit-Span. The verbal memory measures were derived from the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT). We found that most correlations between attention and the Rey AVLT measures were mediated by age. After removing the contribution of age, relationships were found between attentional and memory measures only in the younger age groups (8-12) but not in the older age groups (13-17). For the younger children different attentional tests predicted different aspects of verbal memory. Furthermore, boys and girls showed different patterns of attention-memory relationships. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.