Why does working memory span predict complex cognition? Testing the strategy affordance hypothesis.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Human Memory Research

Background:

• Working memory (WM) span tasks are often used to assess cognitive abilities.
• The role of individual differences in strategy use on WM performance and its relation to other cognitive tasks is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and test the strategy affordance hypothesis.
• To investigate whether individual differences in strategy use mediate the relationship between WM span performance and other cognitive tasks.

Main Methods:

• 148 participants completed WM span tasks and other cognitive tasks (e.g., basic memory, reading comprehension).
• Tasks were designed to afford either the same or different strategies (e.g., imagery, sentence generation vs. self-questioning, summarization).
• Statistical mediation analyses were performed to assess the role of strategy use.

Main Results:

• Effective strategy use on WM span tasks explained variance in the span-memory relationship.
• Strategy use did not account for variance in the span-comprehension relationship.
• Mediation of the span-cognition relationship by strategy use occurred only when tasks afforded the same strategies.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the strategy affordance hypothesis.
• The overlap in strategies afforded by different cognitive tasks is crucial for strategy use to mediate performance relationships.