title: Measuring central executive functioning: what's in a reading span?
abstract: Although variations of Daneman and Carpenter's (1980) Reading Span Test (RST) have seen increasing use in both cognitive and neuropsychological research, the specific mental operations involved in performing it remain unclear. We tested 80 undergraduates to examine the extent to which speed of processing, manipulation capacity, and susceptibility to interference contributed to RST performance. The results suggest that, rather than unitary central executive or processing speed functions underlying RST performance, at least two factors, manipulation capacity and susceptibility to interference, underlie the task. Further study of RST operations may lead to a better understanding of the nature of the central executive itself.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-4820, USA. pwhitney@mail.wsu.edu
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Whitney
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Arnett
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Driver
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Budd
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011581:Psychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013997:Time Factors