Abstract:

Investigated the association between working memory factors and intelligence factors. 75 male and 60 female university students (mean age 26 years) completed the Berlin Intelligence Structure (BIS) test for the assessment of 4 factors of intelligence: reasoning, speed, memory, and creativity. The students also performed a total of 16 tasks measuring 3 working memory (WM) factors: concurrent storage and processing, relational integration, and supervision. A series of structural equation models revealed that the WM factors of relational integration and storage-and-processing were both good predictors of reasoning ability. WM supervision, when measured as general switch costs, correlated only moderately with reasoning. It is argued that the results call into question the view of working memory as an executive attention device that regulates information storage and processing. Instead, theoretical approaches are considered that conceptualize working memory as a system for constructing relational representations through the temporary binding of multiple elements simultaneously.