Working memory, attention control, and the N-back task:: A question of construct validity

被引:607
作者
Kane, Michael J.
Conway, Andrew R. A.
Miura, Timothy K.
Colflesh, Gregory J. H.
机构
[1] Univ N Carolina, Dept Psychol, Greensboro, NC 27412 USA
[2] Princeton Univ, Dept Psychol, Princeton, NJ 08544 USA
[3] Univ Illinois, Dept Psychol, Chicago, IL 60680 USA
关键词
working memory; memory span; n-back; intelligence; individual differences;
D O I
10.1037/0278-7393.33.3.615
中图分类号
B84 [心理学];
学科分类号
04 ; 0402 ;
摘要
The n-back task requires participants to decide whether each stimulus in a sequence matches the one that appeared n items ago. Although n-back has become a standard "executive" working memory (WM) measure in cognitive neuroscience, it has been subjected to few behavioral tests of construct validity. A combined experimental-correlational study tested the attention-control demands of verbal 2- and 3-back tasks by presenting n - 1 "lure" foils. Lures elicited more false alarms than control foils in both 2- and 3-back tasks, and lures caused more misses to targets that immediately followed them compared with control targets, but only in 3-back tasks. N-back thus challenges control over familiarity-based responding. Participants also completed a verbal WM span task (operation span task) and a marker test of general fluid intelligence (Gf; Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices Test; J. C. Raven, J. E. Raven, & J. H. Court, 1998). N-back and WM span correlated weakly, suggesting they do not reflect primarily a single construct; moreover, both accounted for independent variance in Gf. N-back has face validity as a WM task-but it does not demonstrate convergent validity with at least I established WM measure.
引用
收藏
页码:615 / 622
页数:8
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