Is working memory just short-term memory? For instance, DD has a superior digit span, as I mentioned; however, she can also easily memorize entire play scripts, which have to be retained in long-term memory. She has great recall for all kinds of facts, like scientific names of plants, as well as stuff like geography and what types of clouds look like, which involves visual memory. She had to use all this memory stuff to be an early reader, too, I assume.
It seems to be that long-term memory HAS to be part of the package of giftedness, doesn't it? If you can't retain information, then you don't really present as gifted. Possibly gifted with LDs. Short-term memory seems less relevant to me.
Yes, working memory is just short term memory. It would be interesting to know (but I won't google it as I'm supposed to be doing something else!) to what extent WM is correlated with ease of memorising things long term. My guess is not much (meaning not more, or not much more, than any of the other IQ indices are correlated with good long term memory), but I agree with you that long-term memory appears to be part of the package of giftedness, in the sense that many people identified as gifted do have very good long-term memory, and in that it is clear that (even in this google era) long-term memory is important. It may be that it's particularly important to children in helping them to be *identified* as gifted, in which case we should maybe be careful about it? For example, like your DD, my DS has always had a phenomenal memory, and I am also sure that this was important to his early reading. Once you have memorised what a story says word for word, you have as long as you like to puzzle over the squiggles on the page and compare them with what you know they say, as you break the code... If you couldn't remember exactly what they said, you'd find that process a lot harder.
