Abstract
Complex working memory span tasks to measure an individual’s working memory capacity are predictive of several aspects of higher-order cognition. This study examined the influence of ranges of storage item sizes for complex span tasks. The ranges of storage item sizes are regularly controlled not to create the potential for ceiling effects among those participants in the upper end of the performance distributions. The current study utilized different storage item sizes for complex span tasks across verbal, numerical, and spatial content domains to examine the memory load caused by the ranges of storage item sizes. In particular, the relations among processing time, processing accuracy, and storage accuracy from the different complex span tasks in storage item sizes were examined. The results point to a different pattern among these components in different memory load complex span tasks. The effects of memory load of these tasks by storage item sizes are discussed.
