Introducing the Tactual Span: A New Task for Assessing Working Memory in the Teactile Modality.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human Factors

Background:

• Working memory (WM) is crucial for cognitive functions.
• Existing WM tasks primarily use visual and auditory modalities.
• The tactile modality for WM assessment is underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the "Tactual Span", a novel task for assessing working memory in the tactile modality.
• To evaluate the construct validity of the Tactual Span against other WM tasks and cognitive measures.
• To establish the psychometric properties of the Tactual Span.

Main Methods:

• 140 healthy young adults participated.
• Participants completed the Tactual Span, auditory, visual, and visuospatial span tasks.
• Selective attention and semantic verbal fluency tasks were also administered.

Main Results:

• The Tactual Span demonstrated significant correlations with other span tasks, supporting construct validity.
• Correlations with selective attention and semantic fluency tasks were largely nonsignificant.
• Exploratory factor analysis indicated distinct patterns for forward and backward span tasks across modalities.

Conclusions:

• The Tactual Span is a feasible and valid tool for assessing working memory via tactile input.
• Findings suggest the Tactual Span can be integrated into broader cognitive assessments.
• Further research can explore its application in diverse populations and clinical settings.