The role of working memory capacity in autobiographical retrieval: Individual differences in strategic search

Remembering previous experiences from one's personal past is a principal component of psychological well-being, personality, sense of self, decision making, and planning for the future. In the current study the ability to search for autobiographical information in memory was examined by having college students recall their Facebook friends. Individual differences in working memory capacity manifested itself in the search of autobiographical memory by way of the total number of friends remembered, the number of clusters of friends, size of clusters, and the speed with which participants could output their friends' names. Although working memory capacity was related to the ability to search autobiographical memory, participants did not differ in the manner in which they approached the search and used contextual cues to help query their memories. These results corroborate recent theorising, which suggests that working memory is a necessary component of self-generating contextual cues to strategically search memory for autobiographical information.     

Individual differences in category learning: sometimes less working memory capacity is better than more

We examined whether individual differences in working memory influence the facility with which individuals learn new categories. Participants learned two different types of category structures: rule-based and information-integration. Successful learning of the former category structure is thought to be based on explicit hypothesis testing that relies heavily on working memory. Successful learning of the latter category structure is believed to be driven by procedural learning processes that operate largely outside of conscious control. Consistent with a widespread literature touting the positive benefits of working memory and attentional control, the higher one’s working memory, the fewer trials one took to learn rule-based categories. The opposite occurred for information-integration categories - the lower one’s working memory, the fewer trials one took to learn this category structure. Thus, the positive relation commonly seen between individual differences in working memory and performance can not only be absent, but reversed. As such, a comprehensive understanding of skill learning - and category learning in particular - requires considering the demands of the tasks being performed and the cognitive abilities of the performer.     

Dissociative style and individual differences in verbal working memory span

Dissociative style is mostly studied as a risk factor for dissociative pathology, but it may also reflect a fundamental characteristic of healthy information processing. Due to the close link between attention and working memory and the previous finding of enhanced attentional abilities with a high dissociative style, a positive relationship was also expected between dissociative style and verbal working memory span. In a sample of 119 psychology students, it was found that the verbal span of the high-dissociative group was about half a word larger than of the medium and low-dissociative groups. It is suggested that dissociative style may be one of only very few individual differences that is directly relevant to consciousness research.     

Working memory capacity and retrieval limitations from long-term memory: An examination of differences in accessibility

In two experiments, the locus of individual differences in working memory capacity and long-term memory recall was examined. Participants performed categorical cued and free recall tasks, and individual differences in the dynamics of recall were interpreted in terms of a hierarchical-search framework. The results from this study are in accordance with recent theorizing suggesting a strong relation between working memory capacity and retrieval from long-term memory. Furthermore, the results also indicate that individual differences in categorical recall are partially due to differences in accessibility. In terms of accessibility of target information, two important factors drive the difference between high- and low-working-memory-capacity participants. Low-working-memory-capacity participants fail to utilize appropriate retrieval strategies to access cues, and they also have difficulty resolving cue overload. Thus, when low-working-memory-capacity participants were given specific cues that activated a smaller set of potential targets, their recall performance was the same as that of high-working-memory-capacity participants.     

Verbal working memory predicts co-speech gesture: Evidence from individual differences

Gesture facilitates language production, but there is debate surrounding its exact role. It has been argued that gestures lighten the load on verbal working memory (VWM; Goldin-Meadow, Nusbaum, Kelly, & Wagner, 2001), but gestures have also been argued to aid in lexical retrieval (Krauss, 1998). In the current study, 50 speakers completed an individual differences battery that included measures of VWM and lexical retrieval. To elicit gesture, each speaker described short cartoon clips immediately after viewing. Measures of lexical retrieval did not predict spontaneous gesture rates, but lower VWM was associated with higher gesture rates, suggesting that gestures can facilitate language production by supporting VWM when resources are taxed. These data also suggest that individual variability in the propensity to gesture is partly linked to cognitive capacities.     

Intellectual growth in children as a function of domain specific and domain general working memory subgroups

This study examined whether children's growth on measures of fluid (Raven Colored Progressive Matrices) and crystallized (reading and math achievement) intelligence was attributable to domain-specific or domain-general functions of working memory (WM). A sample of 290 elementary school children was tested on measures of intelligence across three testing waves. Two methods, a hierarchical factor model predicting latent growth and a double dissociation design comparing children divided into high and low performers, tested whether general and/or specific components accounted for performance on intelligence measures. A general domain model for the total sample provided the best fit for latent growth on all measures. Further, the lack of a significant WM subgroup × domain interaction suggested that a general WM system underlies the individual differences on measures of fluid and crystallized intelligence. Overall, the findings support a domain-general view of WM capacity on intelligence measures in children, but also suggest that domain specific storage systems may come into play on isolated measures.     

Individual differences in cognitive-flexibility: the influence of spontaneous eyeblink rate, trait psychoticism and working memory on attentional set-shifting

Individual differences in psychophysiological function have been shown to influence the balance between flexibility and distractibility during attentional set-shifting [e.g., Dreisbach et al. (2005). Dopamine and cognitive control: The influence of spontaneous eyeblink rate and dopamine gene polymorphisms on perseveration and distractibility. Behavioral Neuroscience, 119(2), 483-490]. Here we replicate both the facilitatory and detrimental influence of spontaneous eyeblink rate upon switch costs across the two distinct conditions of a set-shifting task. We extend this by presenting additional, putatively dopamine related, individual differences that also influence attentional control. Whereas trait psychoticism showed a pattern of effects opposite to that of eyeblink rate, greater working memory served to decrease switch costs across both conditions. These results highlight the need for further exploration of the role of dopaminergic neurotransmission and component processes involved in such attentional paradigms, and illustrates the importance of considering individual differences in cognitive control.     

Individual differences in autistic trait load in the general population predict visual working memory performance

Prior studies have reported instances of both intact and impaired working memory (WM) performance in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In order to investigate the relation between autistic traits that extend into the normal population and WM, 104 normal college-aged students who varied in their levels of autistic traits were tested. The loading of ASD-associated traits in the normal population leads to differing predictions about WM performance. ASD traits related to a local processing style (or “attention to detail”) might enhance WM while ASD-associated traits related to difficulty switching attention and reorienting focus (or “social interaction”) might impair WM performance. To assess these predictions, participants filled out the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and performed a working memory task with both visual and verbal variants. AQ scores were then broken into “attention to detail” and “social interaction” factors, as proposed by Hoekstra and colleagues. The results showed that AQ scores did not predict verbal WM performance but they did predict visual WM performance. The social interaction and attention to detail factors of the AQ had opposing relationships with visual WM performance: A higher level of social difficulty was associated with significantly poorer visual WM performance while a higher level of attention to detail was associated with enhanced visual WM performance. Further investigation of the relation between AQ and WM using the original five-factor model proposed by Baron-Cohen and colleagues (2001) revealed an association between impoverished imagination and visual WM overall.     

Examining variation in working memory capacity and retrieval in cued recall

Groups of individuals often work together to generate solutions to a problem. Subsequently, one member of the group can plagiarise another either by recalling that person's idea as their own (recall-own plagiarism), or by generating a novel solution that duplicates a previous idea (generate-new plagiarism). The current study examines the extent to which these forms of plagiarism are influenced by the quality of the ideas. Groups of participants initially generated ideas, prior to an elaboration phase in which idea quality was manipulated in two ways: participants received feedback on the quality of the ideas as rated by independent judges, and they generated improvements to a subset of the ideas. Unconscious plagiarism was measured in recall-own and generate-new tasks. For recall, idea improvement led to increased plagiarism, while for the generate-new task, the independent ratings influenced plagiarism. These data indicate that different source-judgement processes underlie the two forms of plagiarism, neither of which can be reduced simply to memory strength.     

Using the process dissociation procedure to estimate recollection and familiarity in working memory: An experimental and individual differences investigation

Numerous studies have found that working memory capacity and perceptual speed predict variation in fluid intelligence. Within the cognitive ageing literature, perceptual speed accounts for substantial ageing variance in working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. However, within young adults, the interrelationships among these three abilities are less clear. The current work investigated these relationships via confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modelling using tasks with verbal, spatial, and numerical content. The results indicate that working memory capacity and perceptual speed were not related in a large, cognitively diverse sample of young adults. However, both working memory capacity and perceptual speed accounted for unique variance in fluid intelligence. The results are discussed in relation to previous research with young and older adults.     

Working through the pain: Working memory capacity and differences in processing and storage under pain

It has been suggested that pain perception and attention are closely linked at both a neural and a behavioural level. If pain and attention are so linked, it is reasonable to speculate that those who vary in working memory capacity (WMC) should be affected by pain differently. This study compares the performance of individuals who differ in WMC as they perform processing and memory span tasks while under mild pain and not. While processing performance under mild pain does not interact with WMC, the ability to store information for later recall does. This suggests that pain operates much like an additional processing burden, and that the ability to overcome this physical sensation is related to differences in WMC.     

Integrating working memory capacity and context-processing views of cognitive control

Individuals low in working memory capacity (WMC) exhibit impaired performance on a variety of cognitive control tasks. The executive-attention theory of WMC (Engle & Kane, [2004[) accounts for these findings as failures of goal maintenance and response conflict resolution. Similarly, the context-processing view (Braver et al., [2001]) provides an explanation of cognitive control deficits observed in schizophrenia patients and older adults that is based on the ability to maintain context information. Instead of maintenance deficits, the inhibition view (Hasher, Lustig, & Zacks, [2007]) states that older adults and individuals low in WMC primarily have an impairment in the ability to inhibit information. In the current experiment, we explored the relationships among these theories. Individuals differing in performance on complex span measures of WMC performed the AX-Continuous Performance Test to measure context-processing performance. High-WMC individuals were predicted to maintain the context afforded by the cue, whereas low-WMC individuals were predicted to fail to maintain the context information. Low-WMC individuals made more errors on AX and BX trials and were slower to respond correctly on AX, BX, and BY trials. The overall pattern of results is most consistent with both the executive-attention and context-processing theories of cognitive control.     

Individual differences in false memory from misinformation: Cognitive factors

This research investigated the cognitive correlates of false memories that are induced by the misinformation paradigm. A large sample of Chinese college students (N=436) participated in a misinformation procedure and also took a battery of cognitive tests. Results revealed sizable and systematic individual differences in false memory arising from exposure to misinformation. False memories were significantly and negatively correlated with measures of intelligence (measured with Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), perception (Motor-Free Visual Perception Test, Change Blindness, and Tone Discrimination), memory (Wechsler Memory Scales and 2-back Working Memory tasks), and face judgement (Face Recognition and Facial Expression Recognition). These findings suggest that people with relatively low intelligence and poor perceptual abilities might be more susceptible to the misinformation effect.     

Mapping numerical magnitudes onto symbols: the numerical distance effect and individual differences in children's mathematics achievement

Although it is often assumed that abilities that reflect basic numerical understanding, such as numerical comparison, are related to children’s mathematical abilities, this relationship has not been tested rigorously. In addition, the extent to which symbolic and nonsymbolic number processing play differential roles in this relationship is not yet understood. To address these questions, we collected mathematics achievement measures from 6- to 8-year-olds as well as reaction times from a numerical comparison task. Using the reaction times, we calculated the size of the numerical distance effect exhibited by each child. In a correlational analysis, we found that the individual differences in the distance effect were related to mathematics achievement but not to reading achievement. This relationship was found to be specific to symbolic numerical comparison. Implications for the role of basic numerical competency and the role of accessing numerical magnitude information from Arabic numerals for the development of mathematical skills and their impairment are discussed.     

Individual differences in working memory capacity and resistance to belief bias in syllogistic reasoning

In two experiments, we investigated the possibility that individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) would provide resistance to belief bias in syllogistic reasoning. In Experiment 1 (N?=?157), participants showed a belief bias effect in that they had longer response times and decreased accuracy on syllogisms with conflict between the validity and believability of the conclusion than on syllogisms with no such conflict. However, this effect did not differ as a function of individual differences in WMC. Experiment 2 (N?=?122) replicated this effect with the addition of decontextualized (i.e., nonsense) syllogisms as a different means of measuring the magnitude of the belief bias effect. Although individual differences in WMC and fluid intelligence were related to better reasoning overall, the magnitude of the belief bias effect was not smaller for participants with greater WMC. The present study offers two novel findings: (a) The belief bias effect is independent of individual differences in WMC and fluid intelligence, and (b) resolving conflict in verbal reasoning is not a type of conflict resolution that correlates with individual differences in WMC, further establishing boundary conditions for the role of WMC in human cognitive processes.     

Low working memory capacity impedes both efficiency and learning of number transcoding in children

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of individual differences in working memory capacity on number transcoding. A recently proposed model, ADAPT (a developmental asemantic procedural transcoding model), accounts for the development of number transcoding from verbal form to Arabic form by two mechanisms: the learning of new production rules that enlarge the range of numbers a child can transcode and the increase of the mental lexicon. The working memory capacity of 7-year-olds was evaluated along with their ability to transcode one- to four-digit numbers. As ADAPT predicts, the rate of transcoding errors increased when more production rules were required and when children had low working memory capacity, with these two factors interacting. Moreover, qualitative analysis of the errors produced by high- and low-span children showed that the latter have a developmental delay in the acquisition of the production rules.     

Differential constraints on the working memory and reading abilities of individuals with learning difficulties and typically developing children

This study examined the factors that constrain the working memory span performance and reading ability of individuals with generalized learning difficulties. In the study, 50 individuals with learning difficulties (LD) and 50 typically developing children (TD) matched for reading age completed two working memory span tasks. Participants also completed independent measures of the processing and storage operations involved in each working memory span task and Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices. The results showed that despite an equivalent level of working memory span, the relative importance of the constraints on working memory differed between the groups. In addition, working memory span was not closely related to word recognition or sentence comprehension performance in the LD group. These results suggest that the working memory span performance of LD and TD individuals may reflect different working memory limitations and that individuals with generalized learning difficulties may approach cognitive tasks in a qualitatively different way from that of typically developing individuals.     

Order information in verbal working memory shifts the subjective midpoint in both the line bisection and the landmark tasks

A largely substantiated view in the domain of working memory is that the maintenance of serial order is achieved by generating associations of each item with an independent representation of its position, so-called position markers. Recent studies reported that the ordinal position of an item in verbal working memory interacts with spatial processing. This suggests that position markers might be spatial in nature. However, these interactions were so far observed in tasks implying a clear binary categorization of space (i.e., with left and right responses or targets). Such binary categorizations leave room for alternative interpretations, such as congruency between non-spatial categorical codes for ordinal position (e.g., begin and end) and spatial categorical codes for response (e.g., left and right). Here we discard this interpretation by providing evidence that this interaction can also be observed in a task that draws upon a continuous processing of space, the line bisection task. Specifically, bisections are modulated by ordinal position in verbal working memory, with lines bisected more towards the right after retrieving items from the end compared to the beginning of the memorized sequence. This supports the idea that position markers are intrinsically spatial in nature.     

The effects of socioeconomic status on working memory in childhood are partially mediated by intersensory processing of audiovisual events in infancy

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a well-established predictor of individual differences in childhood language and cognitive functioning, including executive functions such as working memory. In infancy, intersensory processing—selectively attending to properties of events that are redundantly specified across the senses at the expense of non-redundant, irrelevant properties—also predicts language development. Our recent research demonstrates that individual differences in intersensory processing in infancy predict a variety of language outcomes in childhood, even after controlling for SES. However, relations among intersensory processing and cognitive outcomes such as working memory have not yet been investigated. Thus, the present study examines relations between intersensory processing in infancy and working memory in early childhood, and the role of SES in this relation. Children (N = 101) received the Multisensory Attention Assessment Protocol at 12-months to assess intersensory processing (face-voice and object-sound matching) and received the WPPSI at 36-months to assess working memory. SES was indexed by maternal education, paternal education, and income. A variety of novel findings emerged. 1) Individual differences in intersensory processing at 12-months predicted working memory at 36-months of age even after controlling for SES. 2) Individual differences in SES predicted intersensory processing at 12-months of age. 3) The well-established relation between SES and working memory was partially mediated by intersensory processing. Children from families of higher-SES have better intersensory processing skills at 12-months and this combination of factors predicts greater working memory two years later at 36-months. Together these findings reveal the role of intersensory processing in cognitive functioning.     

The relationship between working memory capacity and cortical activity during performance of a novel motor task

ObjectivesThis study assessed whether individual differences in working memory capacity influenced verbal-analytical processes when performing a novel motor skill.DesignParticipants performed a tennis-hitting task in two conditions: no pressure and high-pressure.MethodsEighteen young adults participated in the study. EEG coherence between the T3-F3 and T4-F4 regions in the Beta1 and Alpha2 frequencies was recorded during performance in each condition. Verbal and visuo-spatial working memory capacity were assessed using the Automated Working Memory Assessment.ResultsNo differences were found between the two conditions for hitting performance and EEG activity. However, across both conditions, verbal and visuo-spatial working memory were significant predictors of EEG coherence between the T3-F3 and T4-F4 regions in the Beta1 and Alpha2 frequencies. Larger verbal working memory capacity was associated with greater coherence while the opposite trend was observed for visuo-spatial working memory capacity.ConclusionsThese results indicate that larger verbal working memory capacity is associated with a greater tendency to use explicit processes during motor performance, whereas larger visuo-spatial working memory capacity is associated more with implicit processes. The findings are discussed with relevance to the theory of implicit motor learning.