Editing Working memory (section)

=== Measures and correlates ===
Working memory capacity can be tested by a variety of tasks. A commonly used measure is a dual-task paradigm, combining a [[memory span]] measure with a concurrent processing task, sometimes referred to as "complex span". Daneman and Carpenter invented the first version of this kind of task, the "[[reading span]]", in 1980.<ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Daneman M, Carpenter PA |date=August 1980 |title=Individual differences in working memory and reading |journal=Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=450–66 |doi=10.1016/S0022-5371(80)90312-6|s2cid=144899071 }}</ref> Subjects read a number of sentences (usually between two and six) and tried to remember the last word of each sentence. At the end of the list of sentences, they repeated back the words in their correct order. Other tasks that do not have this dual-task nature have also been shown to be good measures of working memory capacity.<ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Oberauer K, Süß HM, Schulze R, Wilhelm O, Wittmann WW |date=December 2000|title=Working memory capacity—facets of a cognitive ability construct|journal=Personality and Individual Differences|volume=29|issue=6|pages=1017–45|doi=10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00251-2 |s2cid=143866158 }}</ref> Whereas Daneman and Carpenter believed that the combination of "storage" (maintenance) and processing is needed to measure working memory capacity, we know now that the capacity of working memory can be measured with short-term memory tasks that have no additional processing component.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Unsworth N, Engle RW | title = On the division of short-term and working memory: an examination of simple and complex span and their relation to higher order abilities | journal = Psychological Bulletin | volume = 133 | issue = 6 | pages = 1038–1066 | date = November 2007 | pmid = 17967093 | doi = 10.1037/0033-2909.133.6.1038 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Colom R, Abad FJ, Quiroga MÁ, Shih PC, Flores-Mendoza C |year=2008|title=Working memory and intelligence are highly related constructs, but why?|journal=Intelligence|volume=36|issue=6|pages=584–606|doi=10.1016/j.intell.2008.01.002}}</ref> Conversely, working memory capacity can also be measured with certain processing tasks that do not involve maintenance of information.<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors = Oberauer K, Süß HM, Wilhelm O, Wittman WW |year=2003 |title=The multiple faces of working memory – storage, processing, supervision, and coordination |doi=10.1016/s0160-2896(02)00115-0 |journal=Intelligence |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=167–193 |s2cid=14083639 |url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/97155/1/intelligence.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Chuderski A | title = The relational integration task explains fluid reasoning above and beyond other working memory tasks | journal = Memory & Cognition | volume = 42 | issue = 3 | pages = 448–463 | date = April 2014 | pmid = 24222318 | pmc = 3969517 | doi = 10.3758/s13421-013-0366-x }}</ref> The question of what features a task must have to qualify as a good measure of working memory capacity is a topic of ongoing research.

Recently, several studies of visual working memory have used delayed response tasks. These use analogue responses in a continuous space, rather than a binary (correct/incorrect) recall method, as often used in visual change detection tasks. Instead of asking participants to report whether a change occurred between the memory and probe array, delayed reproduction tasks require them to reproduce the precise quality of a visual feature, e.g. an object's location, orientation or colour.<ref name="Changing concepts of working memory"/><ref name="The precision of visual working mem"/><ref name="Temporal dynamics of encoding, stor"/><ref name="A review of visual memory capacity"/> In addition, the combination of visual perception such as within objects and colors can be used to improve memory strategy through elaboration, thus creating reinforcement within the capacity of working memory.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sobrinho |first1=Nuno D. |last2=Souza |first2=Alessandra S. |title=The interplay of long-term memory and working memory: When does object-color prior knowledge affect color visual working memory? |journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance |date=February 2023 |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=236–262 |doi=10.1037/xhp0001071 |pmid=36480376 |hdl=10216/147912 |url=https://psyarxiv.com/8a2jw/ |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Measures of working-memory capacity are strongly related to performance in other complex cognitive tasks, such as reading comprehension, problem solving, and with measures of [[intelligence quotient]].<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Conway AR, Kane MJ, Engle RW | title = Working memory capacity and its relation to general intelligence | journal = Trends in Cognitive Sciences | volume = 7 | issue = 12 | pages = 547–552 | date = December 2003 | pmid = 14643371 | doi = 10.1016/j.tics.2003.10.005 | s2cid = 9943197 }}</ref>

Some researchers have argued<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Engle RW, Tuholski SW, Laughlin JE, Conway AR | title = Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: a latent-variable approach | journal = Journal of Experimental Psychology. General | volume = 128 | issue = 3 | pages = 309–331 | date = September 1999 | pmid = 10513398 | doi = 10.1037/0096-3445.128.3.309 | s2cid = 1981845 }}</ref> that working-memory capacity reflects the efficiency of executive functions, most notably the ability to maintain multiple task-relevant representations in the face of distracting irrelevant information; and that such tasks seem to reflect individual differences in the ability to focus and maintain attention, particularly when other events are serving to capture attention. Both working memory and executive functions rely strongly, though not exclusively, on frontal brain areas.<ref name="Kane MJ, Engle RW 2002 637–71">{{cite journal | vauthors = Kane MJ, Engle RW | title = The role of prefrontal cortex in working-memory capacity, executive attention, and general fluid intelligence: an individual-differences perspective | journal = Psychonomic Bulletin & Review | volume = 9 | issue = 4 | pages = 637–671 | date = December 2002 | pmid = 12613671 | doi = 10.3758/BF03196323 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

Other researchers have argued that the capacity of working memory is better characterized as the ability to mentally form relations between elements, or to grasp relations in given information. This idea has been advanced, among others, by Graeme Halford, who illustrated it by our limited ability to understand statistical interactions between variables.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Halford GS, Baker R, McCredden JE, Bain JD | title = How many variables can humans process? | journal = Psychological Science | volume = 16 | issue = 1 | pages = 70–76 | date = January 2005 | pmid = 15660854 | doi = 10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00782.x | s2cid = 9790149 }}</ref> These authors asked people to compare written statements about the relations between several variables to graphs illustrating the same or a different relation, as in the following sentence: "If the cake is from France, then it has more sugar if it is made with chocolate than if it is made with cream, but if the cake is from Italy, then it has more sugar if it is made with cream than if it is made of chocolate". This statement describes a relation between three variables (country, ingredient, and amount of sugar), which is the maximum most individuals can understand. The capacity limit apparent here is obviously not a memory limit (all relevant information can be seen continuously) but a limit to how many relationships are discerned simultaneously.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}