| Cognitive style refers to the unique and stable style displayed during the processing and organization of information in perception, thinking, memory and comprehension and other cognitive activities. Visual working memory is capacities limited short-term storage system, responsible for storage and manipulate the visual stimuli information and facilitate people to process real-time visual information through the communications with perception and long-term memory. Cognitive style is a kind of cognitive mode, belongs to personality variable, while visual working memory refers to a cognitive capability, and belongs to cognitive variable. Most of previous studies have found that there is no relationship between cognitive style and visual working memory;however some researchers supposed that different cognitive style individuals have different cognitive ability(e.g. cognitive control ability), so there must be some relation between the two components. Generally speaking, psychologist usually adopt the change detection task as the classical paradigm to measure visual working memory capacity, the K value calculated via signal detection theory represents individual’s visual working memory capacity.Study one explore the relationship between cognitive style and visual working memory in a relatively large sample(N=426). Subjects were measured by embedded figure test, the change detection task and the whole-report task. Firstly, we used the performance of change detection task as a criterion, to validate the effectiveness of the whole-report task as a new paradigm for measuring the visual working memory capacity.Secondly, we explore the relationship between cognitive style and visual working memory derived from the two paradigms(changed detection task and whole-report task).The result showed: 1) performance of the two task were significantly related to each other, consistent with previous researches results(Adam et al., 2013; Mance et al.,2013;Adam et al., 2015), which validate the effectiveness of the whole-report task to examine the visual working memory; 2) cognitive style has no relationship with the performance of change detection task; 3) cognitive style is significantly related to visual working memory measured by the whole-report task.There are two paradigms for measuring visual working memory capacity, they are closely related to each other and both have high validity. However, correlation analysis has obtained an interesting result. We assume that this is because the requirement for cognitive control differentiate between the two paradigms: the change detection task is more inclined to measuring one`s pure memory capacity, while the whole-report task is more emphasis on the measurement of one`s cognitive control ability in visual working memory. Cognitive control refers to the ability of individuals to suppress the task irrelevant information and the corresponding processing activities according to the goals and plans, This process can ensure that the tasks related to the purpose or plan are processed smoothly. Previous studies showed, compared to field dependence individuals,the field independent individuals have higher psychological differentiation ability, and less reliant on "field" in the process of information processing, especially have better performances in the tasks that require strong cognitive control ability to inhibit irrelevant information. Therefore, significant correlation between cognitive style and the whole-report task performance may due to the overlapping components of cognitive control in cognitive style and visual working memory.Study two introduced the n-back task, which requires memory capacity and cognitive control ability, to explore the activation mechanism of cognitive style on visual working memory. Total of 71 subjects take part in the experiment, subjects were required to complete the embedded figure test and digit 1-back, digit 2-back.Correlation analysis found that there is no relationship between cognitive style and performance in digit 1-back and digit 2-back.Study Three introduced a traditional cognitive control task – arrow flanker task to further explore the activation mechanism of cognitive style on visual working memory,in a sample of 73 subjects. Subjects were measured by embedded figure test, arrow flanker task and the whole-report task. Correlation analysis revealed that cognitive style,reaction times(rts) of flanker task and performance of the whole-report task is closely related to each other. We adopted a mediating effect analysis, with the cognitive control(Rts of flanker) as the mediator, cognitive style(EFT) as the independent variable and the visual working memory(WRK) as the dependent variable. The results showed cognitive control plays as a partial mediator in the effect of cognitive control on visual working memory. Structural Equation Modeling depicted by Amos revealed that cognitive style has both direct and indirect positive effect on visual working memory. In addition, proportion of performance failure, a new index extracted from the whole-report task which represented one`s cognitive control ability, was included in the statistical analysis. Correlation analysis found that the new index is significantly related to WRK, cognitive style and flanker performance, which is correspond with the results of mediating effect analysis.In conclusion, study one, study two and study three revealed that cognitive control plays an vital role in the effect of cognitive style on visual working memory: on the one hand, cognitive style has a direct positive effect on visual working memory, that is, field independent individuals have higher visual working memory capacity than field dependent individuals. On the other hand, cognitive style has a indirect positive effect on visual working memory, cognitive control as a mediator, that is, field independent individuals usually have better cognitive control ability, while cognitive control ability will affect one`s performance in the whole-report task, which means higher visual working memory capacity. |
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