Chow Michael, Conway Andrew R A
Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.
Mem Cognit. 2015 Apr;43(3):325-39. doi: 10.3758/s13421-014-0496-9.
Working memory capacity is a strong positive predictor of many cognitive abilities, across various domains. The pattern of positive correlations across domains has been interpreted as evidence for a unitary source of inter-individual differences in behavior. However, recent work suggests that there are multiple sources of variance contributing to working memory capacity. The current study (N = 71) investigates individual differences in the scope and control of attention, in addition to the number and resolution of items maintained in working memory. Latent variable analyses indicate that the scope and control of attention reflect independent sources of variance and each account for unique variance in general intelligence. Also, estimates of the number of items maintained in working memory are consistent across tasks and related to general intelligence whereas estimates of resolution are task-dependent and not predictive of intelligence. These results provide insight into the structure of working memory, as well as intelligence, and raise new questions about the distinction between number and resolution in visual short-term memory.
工作记忆容量是跨多个领域的许多认知能力的有力正向预测指标。各领域间的正相关模式被解释为个体行为差异存在单一来源的证据。然而，近期研究表明，有多种方差来源对工作记忆容量产生影响。本研究（N = 71）除了考察工作记忆中保持的项目数量和分辨率外，还探究了注意力范围和控制方面的个体差异。潜在变量分析表明，注意力范围和控制反映了独立的方差来源，且各自在一般智力中占独特方差。此外，工作记忆中保持项目数量的估计在各任务间一致且与一般智力相关，而分辨率估计则依赖于任务且无法预测智力。这些结果为工作记忆结构以及智力提供了见解，并引发了关于视觉短期记忆中数量与分辨率区分的新问题。
