title: High working memory capacity does not always attenuate distraction: Bayesian evidence in support of the null hypothesis.
abstract: Individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) predict individual differences in basically all tasks that demand some form of cognitive labor, especially if the persons conducting the task are exposed to distraction. As such, tasks that measure WMC are very useful tools in individual-differences research. However, the predictive power of those tasks, combined with conventional statistical tools that cannot support the null hypothesis, also makes it difficult to study the limits of that power. In this article, we review studies that have failed to find a relationship between WMC and effects of auditory distraction on visual-verbal cognitive performance, and use meta-analytic Bayesian statistics to test the null hypothesis. The results favor the assumption that individual differences in WMC are, in fact, not (always) related to the magnitude of distraction. Implications for the nature of WMC are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Building, Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Gävle, SE-801 76, Gävle, Sweden, patrik.sorqvist@hig.se.
authors.forename: Patrik
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sörqvist
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Marsh
authors.forename: Anatole
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nöstl
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*