Ross G. Alloway

Investigating the predictive roles of working memory and IQ in academic attainment

There is growing evidence for the relationship between working memory and academic attainment. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether working memory is simply a proxy for IQ or whether there is a unique contribution to learning outcomes. The findings indicate that childrens working memory skills at 5 years of age were the best predictor of literacy and numeracy 6 years later. IQ, in contrast, accounted for a smaller portion of unique variance to these learning outcomes. The results demonstrate that working memory is not a proxy for IQ but rather represents a dissociable cognitive skill with unique links to academic attainment. Critically, we find that working memory at the start of formal education is a more powerful predictor of subsequent academic success than IQ. This result has important implications for education, particularly with respect to intervention.

Liar, liar, working memory on fire: Investigating the role of working memory in childhood verbal deception

The aim of the current study was to investigate the role of working memory in verbal deception in children. We presented 6- and 7-year-olds with a temptation resistance paradigm; they played a trivia game and were then given an opportunity to peek at the final answers on the back of a card. Measures of both verbal and visuospatial working memory were included. The good liars performed better on the verbal working memory test in both processing and recall compared with the bad liars. However, there was no difference in visuospatial working scores between good liars and bad liars. This pattern suggests that verbal working memory plays a role in processing and manipulating the multiple pieces of information involved in lie-telling.

Home sweet home: Does where you live matter to working memory and other cognitive skills?

Learning outcomes are associated with a variety of environmental and cognitive factors, and the aim of the current study was to compare the predictive power of these factors in longitudinal outcomes. We recruited children in kindergarten and tested their learning outcomes 2 years later. In kindergarten, children completed tests of IQ, phonological awareness, and memory (sentence memory, short-term memory, and working memory). After 2 years, they took national assessments in reading, writing, and math. Working memory performance was not affected by socioeconomic status (SES), whereas IQ, phonological awareness, and sentence memory scores differed as a function of SES. A series of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that working memory and phonological awareness were better predictors of learning than any other factors tested, including SES. Educational implications include providing intervention during the early years to boost working memory and phonological awareness so as to prevent subsequent learning difficulties.

The Working Memory Benefits of Proprioceptively Demanding Training: A Pilot Study

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of proprioception on working memory. It was also of interest whether an acute and highly intensive period of exercise would yield working memory gains. The training group completed a series of proprioceptively demanding exercises. There were also control classroom and yoga groups. Working memory was measured using a backward digit recall test. The data indicated that active, healthy adults who undertook acute, proprioceptively demanding training improved working memory scores compared to the classroom and yoga groups. One possible reason that the training yielded significant working memory gains could be that the training was proprioceptively dynamic, requiring proprioception and at least one other factor—such as locomotion or navigation—at the same time, which may have contributed to the improvements in working memory performance.

Attentional control and engagement with digital technology

Multiple demands comprise the efficiency of attentional control 1. There is abundant evidence that when an individual attempts two or more attentionally demanding activities at the same time, the allocation of attention to the tasks is limited and performance suffers as a result 2. Yet, recent technological innovations require many individuals to manage multiple digital technologies simultaneously or to switch attentional control between tasks 3. The ability to multitask with various digital technologies involves dividing attention, switching between tasks, and keeping track of multiple strands of information in working memory. Here we examine the impact of the quality of multitasking on attentional control. Using real world engagement with digital technology to address the issue, we found that active and passive digital technology users have qualitatively different profiles of attentional control. Active digital technology users prefer to process information in parallel, while passive digital technology users process information successively and so they find it easier to focus on a target and filter out distractions. These differing profiles of attentional control have implications for ways in which we best respond to demands in the workplace 4. There are two competing theories to account for how multitasking impacts attentional control. One account is the bottleneck view where information is processed serially. As a result, attention can only be allocated to one task at a time and engaging in multiple tasks concurrently results in a bottleneck, which impairs cognitive performance 5. An alternative account is a capacity-limited view where information is processed in parallel. However, there is a restricted scope in how