{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]],"date-time":"2026-04-21T03:51:03Z","timestamp":1776743463898,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,26]],"date-time":"2022-10-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1666742400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Children"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Based on studies of children with motor disabilities on topographic working memory (TWM), no influence of age was reported. The only differences were in the degree of mobility and exploration of the environment. The more active a child was in exploring the environment, the less his\/her TWM was poor. However, in typically developing children (TD), exploration of the environment increases with increasing age, and age-related effects have been described. Here, we aim at investigating TWM considering age in TD with the additional question of whether WM in the reaching space differed from that in the navigational space requiring body movements. We hypothesized that WM in both spaces would improve correspondingly with increasing age, assuming that the greater the autonomy in exploring the environment, the better TWM becomes. Method: 120 children (5\u201316 years old) performed the Corsi Block-Tapping test (CBT) and the Walking Corsi test (WalCT). Results: Statistical analyses evidenced significantly increasing WalCT and CBT spans between each school stage, except in the CBT span between middle stage (MS) and upper stage (US). CBT spans were significantly higher than in the WalCT in the pre-school, lower stage, and MS, with the CBT span increasing until MS, which is sufficient for using spatial orientation strategies effectively. Conclusions: When navigation is gradually controlled, a child may be able to pay increasingly more attention to wayfinding and behavior in traffic. Since the US group even presented as good in the WalCT as young adults living in metropolitan environments, assuming that children may gain spatial orientation from having opportunities to move in their surroundings, this is also relevant for children with motor disabilities.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/children9111629","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,26]],"date-time":"2022-10-26T07:17:48Z","timestamp":1666768668000},"page":"1629","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Working Memory in Navigational and Reaching Spaces in Typically Developing Children at Increasing School Stages"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"\u00c5sa","family":"Bartonek","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuropaediatric Unit, Department of Women\u2019s and Children\u2019s Health, Karolinska Institutet, S-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Cecilia","family":"Guariglia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, \u201cSapienza\u201d University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy"},{"name":"Cognitive and Motor Rehabilitation and Neuroimaging Unit, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1322-5538","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Laura","family":"Piccardi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, \u201cSapienza\u201d University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy"},{"name":"IRCCS San Raffaele, 00163 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1757855","DOI":"10.1080\/23311908.2020.1757855","article-title":"Topographical working memory in children and adolescents with motor disabilities","volume":"7","author":"Bartonek","year":"2020","journal-title":"Cogent Psychol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"200","DOI":"10.1080\/00222895.2020.1748861","article-title":"Topographical Working Memory in Children with Cerebral Palsy","volume":"53","author":"Bartonek","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. 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