Working memory span tasks: A methodological review and user’s guide
Top Cited Papers
- 1 October 2005
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Springer Nature in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
- Vol. 12 (5) , 769-786
- https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03196772
Abstract
Working memory (WM) span tasks-and in particular, counting span, operation span, and reading span tasks-are widely used measures of WM capacity. Despite their popularity, however, there has never been a comprehensive analysis of the merits of WM span tasks as measurement tools. Here, we review the genesis of these tasks and discuss how and why they came to be so influential. In so doing, we address the reliability and validity of the tasks, and we consider more technical aspects of the tasks, such as optimal administration and scoring procedures. Finally, we discuss statistical and methodological techniques that have commonly been used in conjunction with WM span tasks, such as latent variable analysis and extreme-groups designs.Keywords
This publication has 101 references indexed in Scilit:
- Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity and Dual-Process Theories of the Mind.Psychological Bulletin, 2004
- When Prejudice Does Not PayPsychological Science, 2003
- Remembering Over the Short-Term: The Case Against the Standard ModelAnnual Review of Psychology, 2002
- Working memory and interference: A comment on Jenkins, Myerson, Hale, and Fry (1999)Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2000
- Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity: More Evidence for a General Capacity TheoryMemory, 1996
- The Measurement of Verbal Working Memory Capacity and Its Relation to Reading ComprehensionThe Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A, 1996
- Working-memory capacity as long-term memory activation: An individual-differences approach.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1993
- Adult age differences in working memory.Psychology and Aging, 1989
- The Cost of DichotomizationApplied Psychological Measurement, 1983
- Remembering the present states of a number of variables.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1960