Working memory capacity is commonly measured using specific cognitive tasks designed to assess how much information an individual can actively hold and manipulate over a short period.
Popular Measurement Methods
One widely used approach to measuring working memory capacity involves tasks that require simultaneous processing and storage of information.
The Operation Span Task
As a popular measure, the operation span task evaluates working memory capacity by requiring participants to perform two actions concurrently: solving a simple math problem (processing) and remembering a word (storage).
Here's how the task typically works based on the reference:
- Participants are shown a series of items.
- Each item consists of a math problem immediately followed by a target word.
- An example provided is: “12 × 8 = 96, WINE”.
- For each item, participants must follow a sequence of steps:
- Read the math problem out loud.
- Say whether the math problem is true or false. (This is the processing part).
- Read the target word out loud. (This is the storage part).
Participants are presented with sequences of these problem-word pairs of increasing length. At the end of a sequence, they are asked to recall all the target words in the correct order. The number of words successfully recalled across different sequence lengths is used to determine the individual's working memory capacity.
This task measures not just how many items can be stored, but also the ability to manage attention and resources while performing distracting tasks, which is a key aspect of working memory functionality.
