Contribution of strategy use to performance on complex and simple span tasks.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Simple and complex span tasks are believed to assess distinct memory constructs.
• Prior research suggests overlap, as both predict fluid intelligence (Gf) when secondary memory (SM) retrieval is controlled.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if individual differences in encoding strategies mediate the relationship between span tasks and Gf.
• To determine if strategy use explains the shared variance between simple and complex span tasks in predicting Gf.

Main Methods:

• Two studies (N=105, N=152) utilized simple and complex span tasks.
• Individual differences in encoding strategy use were assessed.
• Statistical analyses controlled for the number of items retrieved from SM.

Main Results:

• Simple and complex span performance similarly predicted Gf when SM retrieval was equated.
• Effective strategy use did not mediate the span-Gf relationship.
• Strategy use was more strongly related to complex span than simple span performance.

Conclusions:

• Individual differences in encoding strategies influence span task performance, particularly complex span.
• Strategic encoding does not account for the shared predictive power of simple and complex span tasks for fluid intelligence.