title: What makes working memory spans so predictive of high-level cognition?
abstract: Working memory (WM) span tasks involving a complex activity performed concurrently with item retention have proven to be good predictors of high-level cognitive performance. The present study demonstrates that replacing these complex self-paced activities with simpler but computer-paced processes, such as reading successive letters, yields more predictive WM span measures. This finding suggests that WM span tasks evaluate a fundamental capacity that underpins complex as well as elementary cognitive processes. Moreover, the higher predictive power of computer-paced WM span tasks suggests that strategic factors do not contribute to the relationship between WM spans and high-level cognition.
authors.affiliation: Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France. raphaelle.lepine@leadserv.u-bourgogne.fr
authors.forename: Raphaëlle
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lépine
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Barrouillet
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Camos
mesh_terms: D001076:Aptitude; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011340:Problem Solving; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014825:Vocabulary