- Title
- Working memory's workload capacity
- Creator
- Heathcote, Andrew; Coleman, James R.; Eidels, Ami; Watson, Jason M.; Houpt, Joseph; Strayer, David L.
- Relation
- ARC.DP110100234 & ARC.DP120102907 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP110100234
- Relation
- Memory and Cognition Vol. 43, Issue 7, p. 973-989
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13421-015-0526-2
- Publisher
- Springer
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- We examined the role of dual-task interference in working memory using a novel dual two-back task that requires a redundant-target response (i.e., a response that neither the auditory nor the visual stimulus occurred two back versus a response that one or both occurred two back) on every trial. Comparisons with performance on single two-back trials (i.e., with only auditory or only visual stimuli) showed that dual-task demands reduced both speed and accuracy. Our task design enabled a novel application of Townsend and Nozawa's (Journal of Mathematical Psychology 39: 321-359, 1995) workload capacity measure, which revealed that the decrement in dual two-back performance was mediated by the sharing of a limited amount of processing capacity. Relative to most other single and dual n-back tasks, performance measures for our task were more reliable, due to the use of a small stimulus set that induced a high and constant level of proactive interference. For a version of our dual two-back task that minimized response bias, accuracy was also more strongly correlated with complex span than has been found for most other single and dual n-back tasks.
- Subject
- working memory; n-Back task; systems factorial technology; workload capacity; multitasking; proactive interference
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1338750
- Identifier
- uon:28090
- Identifier
- ISSN:0090-502X
- Language
- eng
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