TITLE:
Which Working Memory Components Predict Fluid Intelligence: The Roles of Attention Control and Active Buffer Capacity
AUTHORS:
Adam Chuderski
KEYWORDS:
Working Memory, Fluid Intelligence, Attention Control, Storage Capacity
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.5,
April
9,
2014
ABSTRACT:
This
study tested which of two crucial mechanisms of working memory (WM): attention
control, consisting of focusing attention on the proper task-set as well as
blocking distraction, and the active buffer capacity, related to the number of
chunks that can be actively maintained, plays a more important role in WM’s
contribution to fluid intelligence. In the first study, the antisaccade task
was used, the standard measure of attention control, in a modified variant
which resulted in scores less sensitive to individual differences in the active
buffer capacity, in comparison to the standard variant. In effect, attention
control became a weak predictor of Gf, explaining less than one third of its
variance accounted for by the capacity. In the second study, a variant of another
attention control test, the Stroop task, was applied, which minimized the load
on capacity, and no significant contribution of this task to Gf was found.
Thus, when contribution of control and capacity were unconfounded, attention
control mechanisms of WM contributed to fluid intelligence to a lesser extent
than did the mechanisms related to the active buffer of WM.