WM is defined as a cognitive construct of limited capacity where information from perception and long-term memory is temporarily maintained and manipulated ( Cowan, 1999 Baddeley, 2003). Taken together, the hypothesized conceptual commonalities between the N-back task and the Ospan (and, for the Dspan, differences) were only partly confirmed by the electrophysiological WM load-related measures, indicating a potential need for reconsidering the theoretical accounts on WM tasks and the value of a closer link to electrophysiological research herein.Įach cognitive task of our daily live like checking a receipt by means of mental arithmetic induces load on working memory (WM). Additionally, we observed that behavioral performance measures correlated with changes in EEG alpha power of the N-back and the Ospan, yet not of the Dspan. This might indicate specific demands on cognitive control in the N-back task. The theta frequency band power and the P300 amplitude were most pronounced in the N-back task as compared to both span tasks. This might indicate higher demands on WM processing in the former two tasks. The N-back and the Ospan showed timely more prolonged alpha frequency band power effects as compared to the Dspan. Yet, based on the conceptual considerations, we hypothesized that the outcomes of these measures would be more comparable between the N-back and the Ospan as compared to the Dspan. We expected that increasing WM-load would generally lead to a decreased alpha and beta frequency band power, an increased theta frequency band power, and a decreased P300 amplitude. In the current study, we compared an N-back task, a complex operation span task (Ospan), and a simple digit span task (Dspan) by means of typical WM load-related measures of the Electroencephalogram (EEG) like the parietal alpha and beta frequency band power, the frontal theta frequency band power, and the P300 amplitude, to examine whether these tasks would show commonalities or differences in WM processing-load. Thus, conceptually, an N-back task and a complex span task share more commonalities as compared to a simple span task. In contrast, simple span tasks conceptually mainly require WM storage. 5Department of Psychology, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, GermanyĪccording to theoretical accounts, both, N-back and complex span tasks mainly require working memory (WM) processing.4Department of Psychology, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany.3Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.2Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.1Knowledge Media Research Center, Tübingen, Germany.All Rights Reserved.Christian Scharinger 1*, Alexander Soutschek 2, Torsten Schubert 3,4 and Peter Gerjets 1,5 This experiment has been downloaded 413 times.Ĭlick on an item in the explorer to view it here. You can email me at if you have any questions about the code. While the participant is asked to enter the digits in the given order in the forward digit-span task, in the backward digit-span task the participant needs to reverse the order of the numbers. The length of the longest list a person can remember is that person's digit span. If they do this successfully, they are given a longer list (e.g., '9, 2, 4, 0').
Digit span working memory series#
Participants are presented with a series of digits (e.g., '8, 3, 4') and must immediately repeat them back.
Digit span working memory code#
The code is also shorter and more optimized.ĭigit-span task is used to measure working-memory's number storage capacity. Unlike the previous version, the subject needs to give an incorrect answer twice (in the same step) before the task is terminated. This is the modified version of the digit-span task that was previously posted. Number processing, working memory, short-term memory, digit span, forward, backwardmemory Soylu, Firat, Forward / Backward Digit-Span Task (New Version). View ›› Forward / Backward Digit-Span Task (New Version)Ĭlick on a stimulus item to view it in your browser.įorward / Backward Digit-Span Task (New Version)
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