The Relationship Between Working Memory Capacity and Executive Functioning: Evidence for a Common Executive Attention Construct
By D. P. Mccabe, H. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel, David A. Balota, David Z. Hambrick. Neuropsychology, 2010
794 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Attentional control has been conceptualized as executive functioning by neuropsychologists and as working memory capacity by experimental psychologists. We examined the relationship between these constructs using a factor analytic approach in an adult lifespan sample. Several tests of working memory capacity and executive function were administered to over 200 subjects between the ages of 18-90 years old, along with tests of processing speed and episodic memory. The correlation between working memory capacity and executive functioning constructs was very strong (r = .97), but correlations between these constructs and processing speed were considerably weaker (r's ≈ .79). Controlling for working memory capacity or executive function eliminated age effects on episodic memory, and working memory capacity or executive function accounted for variance in episodic memory beyond that accounted for by processing speed. We conclude that tests of working memory capacity and executive function share a common underlying executive attention component that is strongly predictive of higher-level cognition.
Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c430c852abee243cb240f5f66c45594c3366b4a5
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Cognitive Neuroscience
- Martin P. Paulus
- Murray B. Stein
- A. Melrose
- Robin L. Aupperle
- Hugo D. Critchley
- Brian Knutson
- Anil K. Seth
In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Citations in the corpus
- Executive function and PTSD: disengaging from trauma. (2012, positive): “…to switch between two different tasks or strategies, and 6) planning, or the ability to develop and implement strategic behaviors to obtain a future goal (Smith and Jonides 1999; McCabe et al., 2010; Carlson et al., 2005; Salthouse et al., 2003; Miyake and Shah 1999; Repovs and Baddeley, 2006).”