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Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)
Published on: June 12, 2017
The role of processing difficulty in the predictive utility of working memory span
1University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois, USA. mbunting@casl.umd.edu
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|May 9, 2007
Summary
Working memory span tasks predict fluid intelligence by engaging executive control. When processing demands executive attention, task performance predicts cognitive ability, suggesting shared resources.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Intelligence Research
Background:
- Storage-plus-processing working memory span tasks, like operation span (OSPAN), are key predictors of higher-order cognition, including fluid intelligence.
- The predictive power of these tasks is linked to the cognitive load imposed by their processing component.
- Executive attentional control is crucial for effective working memory performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of executive attentional control within the processing component of working memory tasks.
- To determine how manipulating processing difficulty affects the relationship between working memory and fluid intelligence.
- To explore the concept of resource sharing between working memory storage and processing.
Main Methods:
- Participants (N=59) completed Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) to assess fluid intelligence.
- Multiple versions of operation span (OSPAN) and probed recall (PR) tasks were administered.
- The difficulty of the processing component in OSPAN and PR was manipulated, with PR including a distractor task of varying difficulty.
Main Results:
- OSPAN and PR demonstrated significant correlations with RAPM scores when their processing components required executive attentional control.
- The predictive utility of working memory tasks was attenuated when the processing component primarily interfered with articulatory rehearsal rather than executive control.
- Task difficulty manipulation influenced the relationship between working memory performance and fluid intelligence.
Conclusions:
- Executive attentional control is a critical factor mediating the relationship between working memory capacity and fluid intelligence.
- Findings support the hypothesis of resource sharing between the storage and processing functions of working memory.
- The design of working memory tasks significantly impacts their ability to predict higher-order cognitive abilities.
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