The Influence Of The Cognitive Style, Presentation Format And Task Span On Working Memory

Working memory refers to a limited-capacity system responsible for the simultaneous storage and processing of information during the performance of cognitive tasks. Baddeley thought that the working memory model consists of three subsystems,they are central executive, phonological loop and visual-spatial sketchpad. The central executive is the core of the working memory model,it not only takes charge of the combination between the subsystems ,but also takes charge of the management of the attention resources and the selection of the strategy.The phonological loop specially takes charge of the storge and manipulation of the information which is based on the sound.The visual-spatial sketchpad takes charge of dealing with the visual-spatial information,the information may directly enter into it and also may indirectly enter into it.Two experiments were designed to verify the influence of cognitive style, presentation format and task span on working memory.In the two experiment we all used dual task.One task was a sentence verification involving math facts,we used the reaction time to the verification task and the proportion of the incorrect reaction time response to examine the processing component in working memory.Another task was a different span task involving different simultaneous presentation format for immediate recall,we used the proportion of items correctly recalled from each participant to examine the storge component in working memory. The simultaneous presentation format was picture,spoken word or printed word ,the task span was two,four or six.The two experiments were the same,except for the added requirement of articulation of the math sentence in Experiment two.In this two experiments,we examined the separate cognitive demands of processing and storage in working memory and looked at how effective the coordination was when items for storage varied in presentation format/task span. The result in the first experiment showed that working memory was influenced by the simultaneous presentation format.There was a strong advantage to storing items presented as spoken words,and pictures were remembered better than printed words.Verification of the math facts was quicker when printed words rather than pictures and spoken words were held in memory.Errors rates from the math verification task showed effects that were somewhat consistent with the reaction time data. The working memory was influenced by the task span.With the increasing task span,the correct recall rates dropped,the reaction time from the math verification task was prolonged and the errors rates were increased. The working memory was also influenced by the cognitive style.The result showed that the field-independent style produced superior recall and recognition and the field-independent participant was quicker in math reaction time response than the field-dependent participant,but the result did not show that the congnitive style differed significantly from each other in the errors rates.The second experiment was designed to examine whether the the recall advantage from the spoken words came from echo memory.The result was exactly consistent with the result in the experiment one,except that there was a strong advantage to storing items as pictures not spoken words,but spoken words were remembered better than printed words.This result showed that the strong advantage certainly came from echo memory,the spoken words advantage over pictures was eliminated with articulation. The result also showed that the need to articulate the math facts prior to producing a verification response added load on the central executive and made the dual task more difficult,so the correct recall rates,the reaction time to the math facts and the errors rates differed significantly from that of the experiment one.The main findings in the above two studies are as follows:1. The working memory was influenced by the cognitive style.The field- independent style produced superior recall and recognition and the field-independent participant was quicker in math reaction time response than the field-dependent participant. 2.The working memory was influenced by the simultaneous presentation format.There was a strong advantage to storing items presented as spoken words,and pictures were remembered better than printed words.Verification of the math facts was quicker when printed words rather than pictures and spoken words were held in memory.Errors rates from the math verification task showed effects that were somewhat consistent with the reaction time data.3.The working memory was influenced by the task span. With the increasing task span,the correct recall rates dropped,the reaction time from the math verification task was prolonged and the errors rates were increased.