ArticleBehavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland)2023
Working Memory Capacity Depends on Attention Control, but Not Selective Attention.
Article in Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A qualitative systematic review of individual differences in Stroop task performance among healthy adults.Psychological research · 2026Pooled it
- Individual differences in attention control: A meta-analysis and re-analysis of latent variable studies.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Pooled it
- The relation between cognitive functioning and activities of daily living in normal aging, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia: a meta-analysis.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2024Pooled it
- The effects of dual-task training with different task priorities on physical performance and cognitive status in patients with Parkinson's disease: a single-blind, randomized controlled trial.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026Trial
- Beyond Working Memory Capacity: Attention Control as the Underlying Mechanism of Cognitive Abilities.Journal of Intelligence · 2026Review
- Working memory capacity and emotion regulation strategies differentially predict proactive and reactive cognitive control.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Does Daytime Sleepiness Moderate the Relationship Between Working Memory and Academic Performance in Schoolchildren? A Pilot Study.Clocks & sleep · 2025Article
- Examining measurement discrepancies in adolescent screen media activity with insights from the ABCD study.Npj mental health research · 2025Article
- Evidence for the Beneficial Effect of Reward on Working Memory: A Meta-Analytic Study.Journal of Intelligence · 2024Article
- Post-encoding task engagement not attentional load is detrimental to awake consolidation.Scientific reports · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
Working memory and attention are interrelated constructs that are sometimes even considered indistinguishable. Since attention is not a uniform construct, it is possible that different types of attention affect working memory capacity differently. To clarify this issue, we investigated the relationship between working memory capacity and various components of attention. The sample consisted of 136 healthy adult participants aged 18 to 37 years (M = 20.58, SD = 2.74). Participants performed tasks typically used to assess working memory (operation span, change detection, simple digit span, and adaptive digit span tasks), selective attention (visual search task), and attention control (Stroop and antisaccade tasks). We tested several models with working memory and attention, either as a unitary factor or being divided into selective attention and attention control factors. A confirmatory factor analysis showed that the model with three latent variables-working memory capacity, attention control, and selective attention-fit the data best. Results showed that working memory and attention are distinct but correlated constructs: working memory capacity was only related to attention control, whereas attention control was related to both constructs. We propose that differences in working memory capacity are determined only by the ability to maintain attention on the task, while differences in the ability to filter out non-salient distractors are not related to working memory capacity.
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