Clarity in short-term memory shows no link with IQ

December, 2010

The two measures of working memory capacity appear to be fully independent, and only one of them is related to intelligence.

The number of items a person can hold in short-term memory is strongly correlated with their IQ. But short-term memory has been recently found to vary along another dimension as well: some people remember (‘see’) the items in short-term memory more clearly and precisely than other people. This discovery has lead to the hypothesis that both of these factors should be considered when measuring working memory capacity. But do both these aspects correlate with fluid intelligence?

A new study presented 79 students with screen displays fleetingly showing either four or eight items. After a one-second blank screen, one item was returned and the subject asked whether that object had been in a particular location previously. Their ability to detect large and small changes in the items provided an estimate of how many items the individual could hold in working memory, and how clearly they remembered them. These measures were compared with individuals’ performance on standard measures of fluid intelligence.

Analysis of data found that these two measures of working memory — number and clarity —are completely independent of each other, and that it was the number factor only that correlated with intelligence.

This is not to say that clarity is unimportant! Only that it is not related to intelligence.

Reference: 

Related News

Reports on cognitive decline with age have, over the years, come out with two general findings: older adults do significantly worse than younger adults; older adults are just as good as younger adults.

While brain training programs can certainly improve your ability to do the task you’re practicing, there has been little evidence that this transfers to other tasks.

Rodent studies have demonstrated the existence of specialized neurons involved in spatial memory.

Because Nicaraguan Sign Language is only about 35 years old, and still evolving rapidly, the language used by the younger generation is more complex than that used by the older generation. This enables researchers to compare the effects of language ability on other abilities.

A new study suggests that our memory for visual scenes may not depend on how much attention we’ve paid to it or what a scene contains, but when the scene is presented.

Visual

An intriguing set of experiments showing how you can improve perception by manipulating mindset found significantly improved vision when:

There is a pervasive myth that every detail of every experience we've ever had is recorded in memory. It is interesting to note therefore, that even very familiar objects, such as coins, are rarely remembered in accurate detail1.

Pages

Subscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest health newsSubscribe to Latest news
Error | About memory

Error

The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later.