Traning Strategy Use and its Effects on Working Memory Capacity
Year: 2024
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Two experiments were conducted to examine whether strategy use affects the storage component of a working memory task. In Experiment 1, all 21 participants were given training to create stories from lists of to-be-remembered words (i.e., chaining) within a short-term memory task (i.e., including only a storage task). Short-term memory task performance and working memory span task performance were examined before and after training. Both short-term memory and working memory task performance improved from pretest to post-test. In Experiment 2, the same strategy training was given to 30 participants. In addition, another 30 participants were assigned to a control condition. Participants in the control condition were given no strategy instruction. Participants in the control and training groups were matched on their level of strategy use (more-strategic, less-strategic) during the short-term memory pretest. Participants in both groups improved from pretest to post-test on the short-term memory test; however, only participants in the training condition improved from pretest to post-test on the working memory span task. Participants who were classified as more-strategic outperformed participants who were classified as less-strategic on all measures including reading comprehension. These results indicate that working memory task performance is greatly affected by strategy use.
DOI: 10.25777/nq8v-n545
Author: Scott, Jennifer Lynn
Institution: Old Dominion University
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6964826892
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