Koppenol-Gonzalez Marin, Gabriela
The influence of strategy use on working memory task performance
Gabriela Koppenol-Gonzalez Marin (PhD student)
MTO, Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences,
Tilburg University
P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg
Phone: +31 (0)13 466 4030 / 2544 (secretary)
E-mail: Gabriela Koppenol-Gonzalez Marin
Project: Project financed by Tilburg University
Project running from: 15 March 2009 – 15 March 2013
Supervisors:
- prof. dr J.K. Vermunt (Tilburg University)
- dr S. Bouwmeester (Erasmus Univertsity Rotterdam)
Summary of project
There are some robust effects on WM that are replicated in different studies over the years, like the visual similarity effect and the phonological similarity effect (e.g., Hitch et al., 1989; Poirier et al., 2007). The nature of these effects has been investigated, but research in which group means are compared show inconsistent results. Other researchers have focused more on the methodology and individual differences in WM research (e.g., Logie et al, 1996; Della Sala & Logie, 1997; Engle, 1999). These studies have shown that there are different influences on performance besides the aforementioned effects, like task demands and strategy use. Because this focus seems to lead to useful information about the cognitive processes involved in working memory, there is a need for further refinement of the methodology. The aim of this project is to address this issue. First, we want to investigate the development of WM and test the hypothesis that younger children process information mostly visually, whereas older children process information mostly verbally. Second, we want to further investigate this question by distinguishing the different cognitive processes that underlie the different strategies. Third, we want to explore different measurement tools that enable us to investigate the influence of strategy use and task demands on performance in order to better understand the model of working memory of Baddeley and Hitch and its generalization. Finally, in addressing these aims, we will apply a latent variable approach.
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