(School of Psychology, Massey University, 2012) Campbell, Kathryn; HIll, Stephen; Podd, John
The tasks used to assess working memory are a
highly contentious issue in cognitive psychology.
Previous research has found a weak relationship
between two key types of working memory tasks:
N-Back and Complex Span. This is commonly
interpreted as evidence that one or both tasks
possess poor construct validity. However, this
finding may be a result of assessing different
modalities of working memory. The current pilot
study aimed to clarify the differences between the
two tasks by assessing performance on each within
the same modality. A spatial and verbal version
of each task was used. Although, theoretically,
these tasks assess the same construct, the pilot
data revealed low correlations between them.
This suggests that the current models of working
memory may be inadequate, or that unidentified
differences between the tasks may be influencing
the results. Due to their widespread use and
applications, it is important to better understand
models of working memory and develop improved
tasks.
