Page No. 70-79, Shalini Dubey, Anil Kumar Yadav and Indramani L. Singh
The present study was designed to examine individual differences in working memory capacity on task switching ability. Eighty-six students whose age ranged from 18 to 30 years voluntarily participated in this study. A 2 (Working memory span group: high vs. low) x 3 (Preparation Time: 200 ms, 600 ms and 1000 ms) x 2 (Trial type: repeat and switch) mixed factorial design was employed. Participants who scored in the upper and lower quartiles on the Operation span working memory task were designated to high and low-working memory span groups respectively. Both groups performed a digit and letter classification task in alternating-runs paradigm of task switching. In this task, participant switched back and forth between digit and letter tasks in which they were required to classify either digits as odd/even or letter as vowel/consonant. Three preparation intervals were also provided between trials to prepare for forthcoming task.
Results revealed that high-working memory participants were faster and more accurate in classification of digits and letters on both switch and repeat trials. High-working memory span participants endowed smaller switch cost though they showed lesser improvement with increase in preparation time. Findings of the study provide evidences for executive attention view of working memory capacity.