Complex Information Coordination Performance: Differential Changes in Working Memory Contributions Following Training.

摘要

Information coordination tasks are tasks that require the concurrent performance of two or more component tasks and the subsequent coordination of component information. In the present experiment different procedures, componential and contextual, were used to train separate groups (N=35, N=33) in a coordination task that involved dynamic spatial and verbal components. Within and between group analyses indicated that posttraining performance improved and the improvement was equivalent across treatments. However, individual differences analyses indicated the treatments promoted different ability-performance profiles, which were related to differential dependencies on working memory resources. The differential dependence on working memory appears related to the functional consistency of information (e.g., Carlson Lundy, 1992) in the different treatments. Further analyses indicated that both treatments fostered the coordination of the dynamic spatial information within the relative arrival time task - a dynamic spatial coordination task (Law et al., in-press). Sensitivity to relative velocity, working memory capacity, verbal processing ability, and gender mediated whether individuals became coordinators of dynamic spatial information. The broad implications of this study include the importance of combining mean and individual differences analyses in studies of human cognition.... Working memory, Information coordination, Dynamic spatial reasoning, Individual differences, Part-whole training, Ability-performance profiles.