Shortened complex span tasks can reliably measure working memory capacity.

Measures of working memory capacity (WMC), such as complex span tasks (e.g., operation span), have become some of the most frequently used tasks in cognitive psychology. However, due to the length of time it takes to complete these tasks many researchers trying to draw conclusions about WMC forgo pr...

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Publicado en:Memory & Cognition Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 226 - 237
Autores principales: Foster, Jeffrey, Shipstead, Zach, Harrison, Tyler, Hicks, Kenny, Redick, Thomas, Engle, Randall
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Feb2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Shortened complex span tasks can reliably measure working memory capacity.
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          Foster, Jeffrey
          Shipstead, Zach
          Harrison, Tyler
          Hicks, Kenny
          Redick, Thomas
          Engle, Randall
        affil:
          Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Psychology, 654 Cherry St. Atlanta 30332 USA
          Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe USA
          Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette USA
      su:
        College students
        Intelligence tests
        Memory
        Task performance
        Statistical correlation
        Factor analysis
        Research funding
        Statistics
        Data analysis
        Maximum likelihood statistics
        Data analysis software
        Descriptive statistics
      sug:
        subj:
          College students
          Intelligence tests
          Memory
          Task performance
          Statistical correlation
          Factor analysis
          Research funding
          Statistics
          Data analysis
          Maximum likelihood statistics
          Data analysis software
          Descriptive statistics
      keyword:
        Individual differences
        Intelligence
        Working memory
        Individual differences
        Intelligence
        Working memory
      ab: Measures of working memory capacity (WMC), such as complex span tasks (e.g., operation span), have become some of the most frequently used tasks in cognitive psychology. However, due to the length of time it takes to complete these tasks many researchers trying to draw conclusions about WMC forgo properly administering multiple tasks. But can the complex span tasks be shortened to take less administration time? We address this question by splitting the tasks into three blocks of trials, and analyzing each block's contribution to measuring WMC and predicting fluid intelligence (Gf). We found that all three blocks of trials contributed similarly to the tasks' ability to measure WMC and Gf, and the tasks can therefore be substantially shortened without changing what they measure. In addition, we found that cutting the number of trials by 67 % in a battery of these tasks still accounted for 90 % of the variance in their measurement of Gf. We discuss our findings in light of administering the complex span tasks in a method that can maximize their accuracy in measuring WMC, while minimizing the time taken to administer.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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