Three experiments compared groups of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and healthy older and younger participants on visuospatial tracking and digit sequence recall, as single tasks and performed concurrently. In Experiment 1, tasks were performed concurrently with very low demand relative to span. Only the AD patients showed a dual task deficit. In Experiment 2, single task demand was manipula...

Top-down control over attention was investigated on a dual task in 10-year-olds (N = 15) and adults (N = 21). The tasks were an auditory Digit Span and a simple visual Response Time task. In four conditions, participants performed neither (no-task), one (Digit Span or Response Time only), or both tasks (dual). Dependent variables were Digit Span accuracy, response time, and pupillary dilation t...

Working memory (WM) models have traditionally assumed at least two domain-specific storage systems for verbal and visuo-spatial information. We review data that suggest the existence of an additional slave system devoted to the temporary storage of body movements, and present a novel instrument for its assessment: the movement span task. The movement span task assesses individuals' ability to r...

The objective of this study was to compare performance on different versions of the running span task, and to examine the relationship between task performance and tests of episodic memory and executive function. We found that the average capacity of the running span was approximately 4 digits, and at long sequence lengths, performance was no longer affected by varying the running span window. ...

Single-task and dual-task versions of verbal and spatial serial order memory tasks were administered to 120 students tested for working memory capacity with four previously validated measures. In the dual-task versions, similarity between the memory material and the material of the secondary processing task was varied. With verbal material, three additional words had to be read aloud in the ret...

To better understand the characteristics of athletes who tend to underperform under pressure, we investigated how (a) working memory (WM) capacity and (b) responsiveness of the dopamine system shape real-life performance under pressure. We expected that athletes with smaller WM capacity or a more responsive dopamine system (as operationalized with a risk-taking measure) are especially prone to ...

This research examined the role of working memory (WM) in probability judgment and hypothesis generation using a simulated task that involved estimating the likelihood that particular menu items would be ordered by customers at a dinner. Five main findings were observed. First, judgments of the likelihood of individual items were made relative to alternatives retrieved from long-term memory. Se...