Working Memory Load and Reminder Effect on Event-Based Prospective Memory of High- and Low-Achieving Students in Math

The effects of working memory (WM) demand and reminders on an event-based prospective memory (PM) task were compared between students with low and high achievement in math. WM load (1- and 2-back tasks) was manipulated as a within-subject factor and reminder (with or without reminder) as a between-subject factor. Results showed that high-achieving students outperformed low-achieving students on all PM and n-back tasks. Use of a reminder improved PM performance and thus reduced prospective interference; the performance of ongoing tasks also improved for all students. Both PM and n-back performances in low WM load were better than in high WM load. High WM load had more influence on low-achieving students than on high-achieving students. Results suggest that low-achieving students in math were weak at PM and influenced more by high WM load. Thus, it is important to train these students to set up an obvious reminder for their PM and improve their WM.

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Executive Function and Prospective Memory: The Effect of Inhibitory Control and Working Memory Load

10.22215/etd/2017-12217 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Audrey Brown

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Executive Function ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Prospective Memory ◽

Memory Load ◽

Working Memory Load

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User-Initiated Notification: A Concept for Aiding the Monitoring Activities of Process Control Operators

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193129604000430 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 40 (4) ◽

pp. 283-287 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Stephanie Guerlain ◽

Peter Bullemer

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Process Control ◽

Memory Load ◽

Control Environment ◽

Important Process ◽

Working Memory Load ◽

Plant Personnel ◽

Monitoring Activities ◽

Set Up ◽

Control Operators

Monitoring activities in a process control environment are quite unique depending on the current situation and the operator's current understanding of that situation. Furthermore, the operator may be required to monitor multiple simultaneous events over potentially long periods of time. Currently, operators must periodically scan displays to gather such information, or manipulate the alarm or control system in ways not originally intended in order to gather that information as appropriate. Furthermore, if the monitoring activities span multiple operating shifts, then there is the potential for operators to forget to communicate these requirements at shift change. Despite the uniqueness of the situations that will require process events to be monitored, it is hypothesized that there is a limited set of conditions that can be pre-defined in a tool that will allow operators to set up their own monitoring “agents” according to their current diagnostic needs. Such a tool is predicted to decrease the working memory load of operators, and reduce the time it takes them to detect important process changes (or lack of them). Furthermore, it is proposed that this concept is extensible to other plant personnel and to other domains that have similar monitoring requirements. Although some potential pitfalls can be predicted with the introduction of this tool, the number of predicted benefits warrant the further exploration of this concept. This will be the next step in our design process.

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Visual Search Facilitation in Repeated Displays Depends on Visuospatial Working Memory

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000125 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 59 (1) ◽

pp. 47-54 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Angela A. Manginelli ◽

Franziska Geringswald ◽

Stefan Pollmann

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Search ◽

Control Experiment ◽

Memory Load ◽

Contextual Cueing ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Visuospatial Working Memory ◽

Working Memory Load ◽

Memory Resources

When distractor configurations are repeated over time, visual search becomes more efficient, even if participants are unaware of the repetition. This contextual cueing is a form of incidental, implicit learning. One might therefore expect that contextual cueing does not (or only minimally) rely on working memory resources. This, however, is debated in the literature. We investigated contextual cueing under either a visuospatial or a nonspatial (color) visual working memory load. We found that contextual cueing was disrupted by the concurrent visuospatial, but not by the color working memory load. A control experiment ruled out that unspecific attentional factors of the dual-task situation disrupted contextual cueing. Visuospatial working memory may be needed to match current display items with long-term memory traces of previously learned displays.

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