The influence of working memory capacity in the DRM false memory paradigm, rich media distractibility, and learning/thinking styles

Many studies have found performance differences between those with low working memory capacity (WMC) and those with high WMC when working with contrived stimuli. This aim of this project was to discover if the differences would persist using more real world stimuli. Experiment 1 examined if there was an influence of WMC on false recognition in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) associative list paradigm. The participants in the experiment were screened into distinct low and high working memory (WM) span groups using the operation and reading span tasks, half of which were warned of the phenomenon before study. After study, all participants were given a recognition test. False recognition of the critical word was similar for the two groups, regardless of whether they were warned. However, there was a significant difference in the false recognition of distractors. Those with low WM spans falsely recognized more words from nonstudied lists than did those with high WM spans.; Experiment 2 explored whether there are effects of WMC on distractibility due to Internet web page advertisements. Participants performed Internet search tasks using custom created web pages containing advertisements that varied in location and motion and then took recognition tests to determine how many ads and search tasks they could remember. Similar to Experiment 1, there was a significant difference found in the false recognition of related distractors, those with low WM spans falsely recognized more of the related search tasks than did the high WM span group. Additionally, a significant difference was also found in the quantity of incorrect links chosen when traversing through the web pages, those with low WM spans made more errors than those with high WM spans.; Experiment 3 investigated the relationship of WMC to learning/thinking styles. The learning style instruments of Gregorc and Kolb were used, as well as Sternberg's thinking style instrument. Significant differences on Sternberg's "leanings" dimension were found between the WM span groups. There were also significant negative correlations between Gregorc's CR type and Sternberg's liberal leaning on counting span scores. Additionally, there was a significant positive correlation between Sternberg's executive measure and counting span scores.