Dos pruebas de amplitud de memoria operativa para el razonamiento

Résumé

The conception of short-term memory as a working memory (WM) has allowed a productive analysis and interpretation of individual differences in a diversity of complex cognitive tasks, such as text comprehension and reasoning. However, important problems related to the measurement of WM remain, particularly those concerning how to account for its dual processing-storage function. Two new WM measures for reasoning are proposed in this work. Their rationale is similar to that of Daneman and Carpenter's (1980) classical "Reading Span Test" (RST). However, instead of using a reading task as a secondary task, our Reasoning Span Test employs an inferential task based on verbal analogy or anaphora. These new tests demand deeper semantic processing usually involved in the ability to reason. We therefore hypothesize an increased sensitivity to individual differences in reasoning abilities given these new reasoning span measures. Our results confirm this by showing that reasoning span measures, particularly analogy, correlate with the diverse reasoning measures better than the RST. We discuss the results as reflecting different processing demands placed upon the Central Executive for reasoning versus reading span measures.