Working memory and intelligence are highly related constructs, but why?

Colom, Roberto; Abad, Francisco; Quiroga, Macarena Ángel; Shih, Pei Chun; Flores-Mendoza, Carmen

doi:10.1016/j.intell.2008.01.002

Cited by 287 publications

(243 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…The high correlation was postulated to be based on shared fundamental neural mechanisms in the dorsolateral prefrontal regions in the brain (Conway et al, 2003;Kane & Engle, 2002;Klingberg, 2010) and basic mental processes such as short-term memory storage (Colom et al, 2008) and processing speed (Fry & Hale, 1996). The recent attempts to raise intelligence through improving WM processes (Morrison & Chein, 2011) have created much controversy in the field of cognitive psychology.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Colom, Abad, Quiroga, Shih, and Flores-Mendoza (2008) explored the reasons behind the high correlation between WM and g. They conducted a study in which participants completed several reasoning ability tests, WM tasks, STM tasks, measures of mental speed and executive functioning tasks such as updating and those that could assess one's control of attention. Their confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the simple short-term storage largely accounted for the relationship between WM and g. The other measures were not related to WM, and they remained insignificant with their relation to g after variance from the STM latent variable was removed (Colom et al, 2008).…”

Section: Basic Processes Mediating the Relationship Between Working Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Working Memory and Intelligence: A Brief Review

Chooi¹

2012

JEDP

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This article briefly reviews and organizes research findings from the past few decades that focused on working memory and intelligence. Working memory is a psychological construct that focuses attention, and it is commonly viewed as a temporary storage that holds and manipulates information. Intelligence is a general cognitive ability associated with efficient higher-order thinking such as reasoning and problem solving skills. Decades of research ranging from empirical to brain-behavior studies have shown a strong link between working memory and intelligence, and researchers have begun to manipulate this relationship to further study the complex psychological construct of intelligence. Although the current active research in cognitive training has created much possibility in modifying the two cognitive abilities, there is still a long way to go in achieving thorough understanding of two important constructs in human cognition.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Basic Processes Mediating the Relationship Between Working Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Working Memory and Intelligence: A Brief Review

Chooi¹

2012

JEDP

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“…In this sense, different studies have pointed to WM updating as a predictor of fluid intelligence (Bellaci, Carretti, & Cornoldi, 2010;Friedman et al, 2008;Klauer, Wilmes, & Phye, 2002), although some authors question this relation (Ackerman, Beier, & Boyle, 2005)-or at least, they relativize the role of the WM with regard to the short-term memory-because in some investigations, individual differences in fluid intelligence are associated both with short-term memory and with WM (Colom, Abad, Quiroga, Shih, & Flores-Mendoza, 2008;Swanson, 2008). More specifically, it has been reported that WM updating is the executive function that best predicts fluid intelligence (Friedman et al, 2008), and moreover, it has been confirmed that this relation is independent of the nature (verbal, numerical, or spatial) of the task employed (Kane et al, 2004).…”

Section: The Wm Updating Executive Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Updating executive function and performance in reading comprehension and problem solving. [La función ejecutiva de actualización y el rendimiento en comprensión lectora y resolución de problemas]

2015

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Título: La función ejecutiva de actualización y el rendimiento en comprensión lectora y resolución de problemas. Resumen: Esta investigación analizó, en niños de 5º curso de Educación Primaria, la capacidad predictora de la función ejecutiva de actualización de la Memoria Operativa (MO) en las diferencias individuales en comprensión lectora y resolución de problemas aritméticos. Además, se estudió si esta relación es directa o está mediada por variables de dominio general o especí-fico. Con este fin se administró un conjunto de pruebas que evalúan la inteligencia fluida, la actualización de la información en la MO, la competencia aritmética, la resolución de problemas aritméticos, el procesamiento léxico y la comprensión lectora a 49 alumnos con edades comprendidas entre los 10 y 11 años. Los resultados apoyan la idea que la actualización de la MO es un importante predictor de la comprensión lectora, más allá de la influencia de las habilidades de dominio específico y de la inteligencia fluida. En el caso de la resolución de problemas, nuestros hallazgos confirman que la actualización juega un papel importante aunque, en este momento evolutivo, quizá por el propio contenido de la tarea, la relación parece mediada por la inteligencia fluida. Palabras clave: Comprensión lectora; resolución de problemas; funcionamiento ejecutivo; actualización; habilidades de dominio específico; inteligencia fluida. Abstract:In this investigation, the capacity of the working memory (WM) updating executive function to predict individual differences in reading comprehension and problem solving was analyzed in 5th-graders of Primary Education. In addition, we examined whether this relation is direct or mediated by domain-general or domain-specific variables. For this purpose, a series of tasks was administered to assess fluid intelligence, WM information updating, arithmetic abilities, arithmetic problem solving, lexical processing, and reading comprehension in 49 students aged between 10 and 11 years. The results support the idea that updating is an important predictor of reading comprehension, beyond the influence of domainspecific skills and fluid intelligence. In the case of problem solving, our findings confirm that updating plays an important role although, perhaps due to task content, the relation seems to be mediated by fluid intelligence at this developmental stage..

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“…The capacity limit of this process has repeatedly been shown to share substantial variance with fluid intelligence (Gf; e.g., Colom, Abad, Quiroga, Shih, & Flores-Mendoza, 2008;Engle, Tuholski, Laughlin, & Conway, 1999;Fry & Hale, 1996;Kane & Engle, 2002;Kyllonen, 1996;Kyllonen & Christal, 1990;Salthouse, 1992). Gf is a core component of general intelligence (g), and refers to the ability to think logically and solve novel problems (Cattell, 1971).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elucidating the Functional Relationship Between Working Memory Capacity and Psychometric Intelligence: A Fixed-Links Modeling Approach for Experimental Repeated-Measures Designs

Thomas¹,

Rammsayer²,

Schweizer³

et al. 2015

ACP

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working memory capacity, fluid intelligence, fixed-links modeling, confirmatory factor analysis numerous studies reported a strong link between working memory capacity (WMc) and fluid intelligence (gf), although views differ in respect to how close these two constructs are related to each other. in the present study, we used a WMc task with five levels of task demands to assess the relationship between WMc and gf by means of a new methodological approach referred to as fixed-links modeling. Fixed-links models belong to the family of confirmatory factor analysis (cFA) and are of particular interest for experimental, repeated-measures designs. With this technique, processes systematically varying across task conditions can be disentangled from processes unaffected by the experimental manipulation. Proceeding from the assumption that experimental manipulation in a WMc task leads to increasing demands on WMc, the processes systematically varying across task conditions can be assumed to be WMc-specific. Processes not varying across task conditions, on the other hand, are probably independent of WMc. Fixed-links models allow for representing these two kinds of processes by two independent latent variables. in contrast to traditional cFA where a common latent variable is derived from the different task conditions, fixed-links models facilitate a more precise or purified representation of the WMc-related processes of interest. By using fixed-links modeling to analyze data of 200 participants, we identified a non-experimental latent variable, representing processes that remained constant irrespective of the WMc task conditions, and an experimental latent variable which reflected processes that varied as a function of experimental manipulation. this latter variable represents the increasing demands on WMc and, hence, was considered a purified measure of WMc controlled for the constant processes. Fixed-links modeling showed that both the purified measure of WMc (β = .48) as well as the constant processes involved in the task (β = .45) were related to gf. taken together, these two latent variables explained the same portion of variance of gf as a single latent variable obtained by traditional cFA (β = .65) indicating that traditional cFA causes an overestimation of the effective relationship between WMc and gf. thus, fixed-links modeling provides a feasible method for a more valid investigation of the functional relationship between specific constructs.

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Working memory and intelligence are highly related constructs, but why?

Cited by 287 publications

References 49 publications

Working Memory and Intelligence: A Brief Review

Working Memory and Intelligence: A Brief Review

Updating executive function and performance in reading comprehension and problem solving. [La función ejecutiva de actualización y el rendimiento en comprensión lectora y resolución de problemas]

Elucidating the Functional Relationship Between Working Memory Capacity and Psychometric Intelligence: A Fixed-Links Modeling Approach for Experimental Repeated-Measures Designs

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