Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2020 Jun;73(6):920-928. doi: 10.1177/1747021820909703. Epub 2020 Mar 19.
Working memory processes are important for analytic problem-solving; however, their role in multiply-constrained problem-solving is currently debated. This study explored individual differences in working memory and successful completion of analytic and multiply-constrained problem-solving by having participants solve algebra and compound remote associate (CRAT) problems of varying difficulty under low and high memory demand conditions. Working memory was predictive of both algebra and multiply-constrained problem-solving. Specifically, participants with high working memory solved more problems than those with low working. Memory load did not differentially affect performance for low and high working memory participants. However, for multiply-constrained problem-solving the effect of item difficulty was more detrimental for high-span participants than low-span participants. Together, these findings suggest that working memory processes are important for both types of problem-solving and that participants with low working memory capacity may need to offload internal memory demands onto the environment to efficiently solve problems.
工作记忆过程对于分析问题解决很重要；然而，它们在多重约束问题解决中的作用目前仍存在争议。本研究通过让参与者在低记忆需求和高记忆需求条件下解决不同难度的代数和复合远程联想（CRAT）问题，探讨了工作记忆与分析和多重约束问题解决的个体差异。工作记忆对代数和多重约束问题解决都有预测作用。具体来说，工作记忆较高的参与者比工作记忆较低的参与者解决的问题更多。记忆负荷对低工作记忆和高工作记忆参与者的表现没有差异影响。然而，对于多重约束问题解决，项目难度的影响对高跨度参与者比对低跨度参与者更为不利。总之，这些发现表明工作记忆过程对于两种类型的问题解决都很重要，并且低工作记忆能力的参与者可能需要将内部记忆需求卸载到环境中，以有效地解决问题。
