Working memory capacity (WMC) has received a great deal of attention in cognitive psychology partly because WMC correlates broadly with other abilities (e.g., reading comprehension, second-language proficiency, fluid intelligence) and thus seems to be a critical aspect of cognitive ability. However, it is still rigorously debated why such correlations occur. Some theories posit a single ability (e.g., attention control, short-term memory capacity, controlled memory search) as the primary reason behind WMC's predictiveness, whereas others argue that WMC is predictive because it taps into multiple abilities. Here, we tested these single- and multifaceted accounts of WMC with a large-scale (N = 974) individual-differences investigation of WMC and three hypothesized mediators: attention control, primary memory, and secondary memory. We found evidence for a multifaceted account, such that no single ability could fully mediate the relation between WMC and higher order cognition (i.e., reading comprehension and fluid intelligence). Further, such an effect held regardless of whether WMC was measured via complex span or n-back. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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是什么让工作记忆发挥作用？对工作记忆容量预测能力的多方面解释。


工作记忆能力（WMC）在认知心理学中受到广泛关注，部分原因是 WMC 与其他能力（例如阅读理解、第二语言能力、流体智力）广泛相关，因此似乎是认知能力的一个关键方面。然而，为什么会出现这种相关性仍然存在激烈争论。一些理论认为单一能力（例如注意力控制、短期记忆能力、受控记忆搜索）是 WMC 预测性背后的主要原因，而其他理论则认为 WMC 具有预测性是因为它利用了多种能力。在这里，我们通过对 WMC 的大规模（N = 974）个体差异调查和三个假设的中介因素（注意力控制、初级记忆和次级记忆）来测试这些 WMC 的单方面和多方面的解释。我们发现了多方面解释的证据，因此没有任何一种能力可以完全调解 WMC 和高阶认知（即阅读理解和流体智力）之间的关系。此外，无论 WMC 是通过复跨度还是 n-back 测量，这种效应都存在。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。