Working Memory (WM)

Working Memory (WM)

1. Reflects a capacity for both maintaining information and operating on that information

   • Encompasses both storage and processing

2. Working Memory - Executive Function RELATIONSHIP

   • Executive Function (EF)
     • Ability to allocate attention to external stimuli and internal representations
       • Inhibit attention to interfering material
   • High correlation between WM and EF
     • EXAMPLE: A recent study by McCabe, Reedier, McDaniel, et al., found a strong relationship between factor scores of WM (derived from several measures of complex span) and EF (derived from several standard EF tasks such as Wisconsin Card Sorting task).
       • These findings suggest that deficits in WM might be related to deficits in aspects of EF.
         • Danielle Riddle 25 points
     • Deficits in more complex WM appear to affect the ability to carry out what have been termed post-interpretive aspects of sentence processing rather than more on-line interpretive aspects of EF (Caplan & Waters, 1999).
     • Attention allocation is thought to be one aspect of EF, which involves coordinating goal-directed behavior.
       • WM encompasses this type of EF for processing and operating on information.