TY - JOUR
T1 - Working memory capacity mediates the relationship between removal and fluid intelligence
AU - Singh, Krishneil A.
AU - Gignac, Gilles E.
AU - Brydges, Christopher R.
AU - Ecker, Ullrich K.H.
PY - 2018/8/1
Y1 - 2018/8/1
N2 - A process of active, item-wise removal of information from working memory (WM) has been proposed as the core component process of WM updating. Consequently, we investigated the associations between removal efficiency, WM capacity, and fluid intelligence (gF) in a series of three individual-differences studies via confirmatory factor analysis. In each study, participants completed a novel WM updating task battery designed to measure removal efficiency. In Study 1, participants additionally completed a WM capacity task battery. In Study 2, participants completed a battery of well-established measures of gF in addition to the updating battery. In Study 3, participants completed the updating, WM capacity, and gF task batteries. The results suggested that removal efficiency was related to both WM capacity and gF. Furthermore, based on a mediation analysis, the relationship between removal efficiency and gF was found to be entirely indirect via removal's influence on WM capacity. The results were interpreted to suggest that removal ability may contribute to performance in reasoning tasks effectively through increasing WM capacity, presumably through reducing interference from distracting information.
AB - A process of active, item-wise removal of information from working memory (WM) has been proposed as the core component process of WM updating. Consequently, we investigated the associations between removal efficiency, WM capacity, and fluid intelligence (gF) in a series of three individual-differences studies via confirmatory factor analysis. In each study, participants completed a novel WM updating task battery designed to measure removal efficiency. In Study 1, participants additionally completed a WM capacity task battery. In Study 2, participants completed a battery of well-established measures of gF in addition to the updating battery. In Study 3, participants completed the updating, WM capacity, and gF task batteries. The results suggested that removal efficiency was related to both WM capacity and gF. Furthermore, based on a mediation analysis, the relationship between removal efficiency and gF was found to be entirely indirect via removal's influence on WM capacity. The results were interpreted to suggest that removal ability may contribute to performance in reasoning tasks effectively through increasing WM capacity, presumably through reducing interference from distracting information.
KW - Fluid intelligence
KW - Memory updating
KW - Removal
KW - Working memory capacity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85043605759&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jml.2018.03.002
DO - 10.1016/j.jml.2018.03.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85043605759
VL - 101
SP - 18
EP - 36
JO - Journal of Memory & Language
JF - Journal of Memory & Language
SN - 0749-596X
ER -