Occupation shapes cognition? The case of restaurant ticket collectors' working memory updating ability

Abstract

Previous research revealed associations between an individual's occupation and cognitive abilities. However, the underlying causal relation is not always clear and only few studies focused on a critical component of executive functioning, namely working memory updating (WMU). Study 1 examined whether restaurant ticket collectors (N = 53) have a better WMU ability compared to a group of security guards (N = 49) that was matched on relevant variables. Study 2 examined transfer effects of a computerized working memory training program in students. The program simulated elements of a restaurant ticket collector's daily work requirements. In Study 1, the ticket collectors performed better than the guards on WMU tasks. In Study 2, using an active control group (N = 33) as comparison, the trained students (N = 33) displayed beneficial training effects on transfer WMU tasks but not on general intelligence tasks. The results support the general notion of repeated experience with occupation-specific demands affecting specific objectively-assessed cognitive abilities.

Complejidad laboral y de las tareas del hogar y su relación con el rendimiento cognitivo en adultos mayores, mujeres y varones

“…Por su parte Arbula et al (2016) y Donka y Balogh (2022) encontraron mejor rendimiento en funciones ejecutivas en los controladores de tráfico aéreo y en los atletas profesionales, respectivamente, en comparación con sujetos controles del control. Otros estudios que analizaron el vínculo entre la complejidad laboral y la memoria de trabajo señalaron mejores rendimientos en esta capacidad cognitiva en músicos (Ding et al, 2018;Schneider et al, 2019) y en camareros de restaurantes (Zhao et al, 2023) . Por su parte Sorman, et al (2021) analizaron en un estudio longitudinal el vínculo entre la memoria episódica en la vejez y la complejidad de la actividad laboral, indicando una asociación positiva entre ambas variables.…”