The spans question: Challenges to the memory interpretation of the "memory" span test

Six experiments are presented that examined the constraints underlying performance in two visuo-spatial span tasks. In the Location Span Test (LST), participants have to memorize the cells of a 5×5 matrix containing arrows, while in the Direction Span Test (DST) they have to memorize the cells pointed at by arrows. The main objective was to assess whether both tasks were similarly influenced by experimental factors. Results showed that performance improved with longer encoding time (1-s. vs. 3-s) only for the DST. Maintenance interval (0-s vs. 5-s) and order of item difficulty (ascending vs. descending) have no effect either on the LST or on the DST. Another experiment indicated that the DST is a better predictor of fluid intelligence. These results seem to provide evidence that the LST and the DST relate to different constructs. Implications of these findings for the distinction between short-term and working memory span tasks are discussed.

Download Full-text

Report on an Experimental Group-Administered Memory Span Test

TESOL Quarterly ◽

10.2307/3585721 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 203 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

David P. Harris

Keyword(s):

Memory Span ◽

Span Test ◽

Experimental Group

Download Full-text

Traditional Neuropsychological Testing Does Not Predict Motor-Cognitive Test Performance

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17207393 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (20) ◽

pp. 7393

Author(s):

Jan Wilke ◽

Oliver Vogel ◽

Sandra Ungricht

Keyword(s):

Test Performance ◽

Memory Span ◽

Digit Span ◽

Neuropsychological Testing ◽

Cognitive Testing ◽

Cognitive Test ◽

Balance Test ◽

Span Test ◽

Counter Movement Jump ◽

Test Digit

The ecological validity of neuropsychological testing (NT) has been questioned in the sports environment. A frequent criticism is that NT, mostly consisting of pen and paper or digital assessments, lacks relevant bodily movement. This study aimed to identify the determinants of a newly developed testing battery integrating both cognitive and motor demands. Twenty active individuals (25 ± 3 years, 11 males) completed the new motor-cognitive testing battery (MC), traditional NT (Stroop test, Trail Making test, Digit Span test) and isolated assessments of motor function (MF; Y-balance test, 20m-sprint, counter-movement jump). Kendal’s tau and partial Spearman correlations were used to detect associations between MC and NT/MF. Except for two items (Reactive Agility A and counter-movement jump; Run-Decide and sprint time; r = 0.37, p < 0.05), MC was not related to MF. Similarly, MC and NT were mostly unrelated, even when controlling for the two significant motor covariates (p > 0.05). The only MC item with (weak to moderate) associations to NT was the Memory Span test (Digit Span backwards and composite; r = 0.43–0.54, p < 0.05). In sum, motor-cognitive function appears to be largely independent from its two assumed components NT and MF and may represent a new parameter in performance diagnostics.

Download Full-text

The Application of the Auditory Memory Span Test to Two Thousand Institutional Epileptics: A Study in Relative Associability.

Journal of Applied Psychology ◽

10.1037/h0065971 ◽

1924 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 368-368

Author(s):

No authorship indicated

Keyword(s):

Memory Span ◽

Auditory Memory ◽

Span Test

Download Full-text

Experiment 41. Auditory memory span test.

10.1037/13535-041 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 139-142

Author(s):

Egbert Milton Turner ◽

George Herbert Betts

Keyword(s):

Memory Span ◽

Auditory Memory ◽

Span Test

Download Full-text

Working Memory, Text Comprehension, and Propositional Reasoning: A New Semantic Anaphora WM Test

The Spanish Journal of Psychology ◽

10.5209/rev_sjop.2011.v14.n1.3 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 37-49 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nuria Carriedo ◽

M. Rosa Elosúa ◽

Juan A. García-Madruga

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Reading Comprehension ◽

Text Comprehension ◽

Memory Span ◽

Reading Span ◽

Reasoning Task ◽

Processing Task ◽

Span Test ◽

Pronominal Anaphora ◽

Syntactic Cues

The aim of this study was to present a new working memory test following the line of work started by García-Madruga et al. (2007) and to examine its relation to reading comprehension and propositional reasoning measures. In that study we designed a new working memory span test –based on Daneman & Carpenter's (1980) Reading Span Test (RST)– in which the processing task called for an inferential decision –to resolve a pronominal anaphora based on Morpho-Syntactic cues– and had people recall the result of this inference. In the current study, besides the RST and the Morpho-Syntactic Anaphora test, we presented a new Semantic Anaphora measure. In order to check the validity of this new Working Memory (WM) task, we used the same reasoning task used in the previous study as well as a new reading comprehension test. The results show the tight relationship amongst working memory, reading comprehension and reasoning, and confirm the validity of the new WM measure.

Download Full-text

Short-Term Auditory Memory, Oral Perception, and Experimental Sound Learning

Journal of Speech and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.1201.185 ◽

1969 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 185-192 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

John L. Locke

Keyword(s):

Memory Span ◽

Auditory Memory ◽

Span Task ◽

Short Term ◽

Learning Framework ◽

Sound Learning ◽

Oral Perception

Ten children with high scores on an auditory memory span task were significantly better at imitating three non-English phones than 10 children with low auditory memory span scores. An additional 10 children with high scores on an oral stereognosis task were significantly better at imitating two of the three phones than 10 children with low oral stereognosis scores. Auditory memory span and oral stereognosis appear to be important subskills in the learning of new articulations, perhaps explaining their appearance in the literature as “etiologies” of disordered articulation. Although articulation development and the experimental acquisition of non-English phones have certain obvious differences, they seem to share some common processes, suggesting that the sound learning framework may be an efficacious technique for revealing otherwise inaccessible information.

Download Full-text