David Z. Hambrick, Michael J.Kane, and Randall W.Engle

Working Memory

Working Memory, 1992, Baddeley

Working Memory and language, 2003, Baddeley

Measuring individual difference◦ Reading/operation/counting/spatial span

Two observation1.WM tasks are reliable2.Individual difference is correlated with Higher-

level Cognition.

General or Specific WM ?

Two hypothesis◦ Domain-specific factor

Reading process – reading span task, etc.◦ Domain-general factor

Attention control / Inhibitory process

Average inter-task correlation

Domain-general factor

Correlation of WM span with higher-level cognition

Microanalytic Research◦ WM tasks vs. elementary tasks.

Macroanalytic Research◦ WM vs. Individual difference (Cognition)◦ WM may be a component of gf

WM

Elementarytask

Elementarytask

gf

WM

The main effect of strategy use may be on the total variance in WM performance.

But it Not mean differential strategy use by low-spans and high-spans accounts for the relationship between WM span and higher-level cognition.

Domain-general hypothesis◦ Microanalytic

Individual difference Factor is elementary attention.◦ Macroanalytic

WM plays important role in cognition.

WM : bottom-up◦ Integrating coming information with preexisting

knowledge.