<P> Working memory capacity is correlated with learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy . Initial evidence for this relation comes from the correlation between working - memory capacity and reading comprehension, as first observed by Daneman and Carpenter (1980) and confirmed in a later meta - analytic review of several studies . Subsequent work found that working memory performance in primary school children accurately predicted performance in mathematical problem solving . One longitudinal study showed that a child's working memory at 5 years old is a better predictor of academic success than IQ . </P> <P> In a large - scale screening study, one in ten children in mainstream classrooms were identified with working memory deficits . The majority of them performed very poorly in academic achievements, independent of their IQ . Similarly, working memory deficits have been identified in national curriculum low - achievers as young as seven years of age . Without appropriate intervention, these children lag behind their peers . A recent study of 37 school - age children with significant learning disabilities has shown that working memory capacity at baseline measurement, but not IQ, predicts learning outcomes two years later . This suggests that working memory impairments are associated with low learning outcomes and constitute a high risk factor for educational underachievement for children . In children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, ADHD, and developmental coordination disorder, a similar pattern is evident . </P> <P> There is some evidence that optimal working memory performance links to the neural ability to focus attention on task - relevant information and to ignore distractions, and that practice - related improvement in working memory is due to increasing these abilities . One line of research suggests a link between the working memory capacities of a person and their ability to control the orientation of attention to stimuli in the environment . Such control enables people to attend to information important for their current goals, and to ignore goal - irrelevant stimuli that tend to capture their attention due to their sensory saliency (such as an ambulance siren). The direction of attention according to one's goals is assumed to rely on "top - down" signals from the pre-frontal cortex (PFC) that biases processing in posterior cortical areas . Capture of attention by salient stimuli is assumed to be driven by "bottom - up" signals from subcortical structures and the primary sensory cortices . The ability to override "bottom - up" capture of attention differs between individuals, and this difference has been found to correlate with their performance in a working - memory test for visual information . Another study, however, found no correlation between the ability to override attentional capture and measures of more general working - memory capacity . </P> <P> An impairment of working memory functioning is normally seen in several neural disorders: </P>

The component of working memory that is responsible for verbal and auditory information is the