Attention allocation, updating working memory, and language processing
are interdependent cognitive tasks related to the focused
direction of limited resources, refreshing and substituting information
in the current focus of attention, and receiving/sending verbal
communication, respectively. The current study systematically
examined the relationship among executive attention, working
memory executive skills, and language abilities while adjusting
for individual differences in short-term memory. School-age children
completed a selective attention task requiring them to recall
whether a presented shape was in the same place as a previous target
shape shown in an array imposing a low or high working memory
load. Results revealed a selective attention cost when working
above but not within memory span capacity. Measures of general
working memory were positively related to overall task performance,
whereas language abilities were related to response time.
In particular, higher language skills were associated with faster
responses under low load conditions. These findings suggest that
attentional control and storage demands have an additive impact
on working memory resources but provide only limited evidence
for a domain-general mechanism in language learning.