This study explored changes in scalp electrophysiology across two Working Memory
(WM) tasks and two age groups. Continuous electroencephalography (EEG) was
recorded from 18 healthy adults (18-34 years) and 12 healthy adolescents (14-17) during
the performance of two Oculomotor Delayed Response (ODR) WM tasks; (i.e. eye
movements were the metric of motor response). Delay-period, EEG data in the alpha
frequency was sampled from anterior and parietal scalp sites to achieve a general
measure of frontal and parietal activity, respectively. Frontal-parietal, alpha coherence
was calculated for each participant for each ODR-WM task. Coherence significantly
decreased in adults moving across the two ODR tasks, whereas, coherence significantly
increased in adolescents moving across the two ODR tasks. The effects of task in the
adolescent and adult groups were large and medium, respectively. Within the limits of
this study, the results provide empirical support that WM development during adolescence
include complex, qualitative, change
