Ranking Working Memory Ability: Analyzing the Variance of Results through Inhibition

Abstract

Working memory (WM) skills are an important predictor of academic achievement. WM may be aided by good response inhibition, which helps a child focus on a task. To ensure high task purity on WM testscores, these tests are traditionally administered in an individual setting. However, it was previously found that WM tests administered in a classroom are a more accurate reflection of a child’s real, everyday, capacities. In this paper two WM tasks: the Lion game and the Monkey game, are analysed to see if performing these tasks in the classroom would be a good way to broaden the variety of results, and thus assess differences between participants more accurately. Data were collected in children aged 7-12 (N = 99). To assess WM, the tasks were completed in both an individual and a classroom setting. A Go/No-go task was completed to assess response inhibition. The variety of results was not found to be significantly different between settings. In a Wilcoxon signed rank-test, it was found that the rankings on the WM tasks were significantly different in the different settings. These results indicate that these tasks give a different result when measured in an individual setting, compared to a classroom setting. Response inhibition further did not moderate the relation between setting and ranking differences on the WM tasks. This study found that testing in a classroom situation is useful, if the aim of the assess