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Purpose: Our goal is to present the relationships between working memory (WM) and auditory processing abilities in school-age children.
Review and Discussion: We begin with an overview of auditory processing, the conceptualization of auditory processing disorder, and the assessment of auditory processing abilities in children. Next, we describe a model of WM and a model of auditory processing followed by their comparison. Evidence for the relationships between WM and auditory processing abilities in school-age children follows. Specifically, we present evidence for the association (or lack thereof) between WM/attention and auditory processing test performance.
Clinical Implications: In conclusion, we describe a new framework for understanding auditory processing abilities in children based on integrated evidence from cognitive science, hearing science, and language science. We also discuss clinical implications in children that could inform future research.
Auditory processing is defined as the decoding of auditory stimuli along the auditory pathway in the central nervous system (CNS; Abrams & Kraus, 2015). Behavioral performance typically ascribed to auditory processing includes sound localization, sound lateralization, auditory discrimination, auditory pattern recognition, temporal processing, and speech perception in competing or degraded listening conditions (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [ASHA], 2005). Clinical assessment of these abilities, as defined here, is within the scope of practice of an audiologist. Adequate auditory processing abilities are integral to listening in a variety of functional situations and are therefore associated with receptive and expressive language (both spoken and written) and overall learning abilities (ASHA, 2005). Acoustic input received by the peripheral auditory system is encoded and conveyed through the central auditory pathway to the cortex. For spoken language stimuli, phonemic processing is fundamental, and this involves auditory areas in the temporal lobe among other brain regions. Sound reception and acoustic or phonemic analysis are therefore included as components of auditory processing (Richard, 2013). Phonemic processing is part of linguistic processing, which is a complex cognitive function that additionally involves assigning meaning to stimuli, comprehending syntax and discourse. Based on current knowledge about the development, organization, and functioning of the CNS, it is evident that auditory processing engages bottom-up (ascending central auditory system), top-down (descending/efferent system and cortical centers), and association and commissural neural pathways (Moore, 2012; Schmithorst, Farah, & Keith, 2013). A list of auditory processes and their descriptions...