‘(6/2) + 2 = 5’) to which the participant must assess whether or not the printed answer is correct. The processing part of the operation span task involves presenting the participant with a mathematical operation (e.g. Turner and Engle ( 1989) introduced the operation span task with two versions that differed in the TBR units. The form of the to-be-remembered (TBR) items and the processing task can take many forms. The simultaneous processing of information while needing to store information for recall has become an integral part of working memory research.Ĭomplex span tasks follow the paradigm of item storage with concurrent processing of a demanding task in which there are a set number of item storage and cognitive processing events. Administration consisted of three trials at set sizes two through six. In their reading span task participants were required to read aloud sentences and attempt to remember the last word in each sentence. Some examples of topics that have seen measures of WM used as a predictor include depression ( Arnett et al., 1999), learning computer languages ( Shute, 1991), life event stress ( Klein & Boals, 2001), regulating emotion ( Kleider, Parrott, & King, 2010), and multitasking ( Bühner, König, Pick, & Krumm, 2006 Hambrick, Oswald, Darowski, Rench, & Brou, 2010).ĭaneman and Carpenter ( 1980) reported a paradigm that was designed to capture the conceptual requirements of simultaneous processing and memory operations thought to be inherent to working memory functioning. In addition to its prominence within cognitive research there are a wide variety of other disciplines incorporating WM ability in to their research programmes and assessing the impact of this cognitive system on their respective domains of study. Working memory ability has been shown to correlate reliably with other cognitive abilities such as fluid intelligence ( Conway, Cowan, Bunting, Therriault, & Minkoff, 2002), arithmetic ( McLean & Hitch, 1999), the ability to prevent mind wandering during tasks requiring focus ( Kane et al., 2007), executive attention ( Kane & Engle, 2003), general learning disabilities ( Alloway, 2009), and many more.
This workspace has limited capacity and the critical factors that contribute to this capacity ‘limit’ are open to debate but it is clear that the working memory system is a limited resource and that this limit varies across individuals. As a carpenter will lay out the tools and materials that they need for the job on their workbench so they are readily available, our mental workbench can hold ‘chunks’ of information that are required for our current cognitive goals. Klatzky ( 1980) described the working memory system as being a mental workbench using the analogy of a carpenters workbench.
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