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Title:
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Task switching and short-term retention: The role of memory load in task switching performance |
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Author:
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Allen, Corinne |
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Advisor:
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Martin, Randi |
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Degree:
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Master of Arts thesis |
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Abstract:
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Shifting, which is the process of switching task sets between two or more tasks, incurs a cost: participants are slower and more error prone when a switch is required, relative to when the same task is performed in a sequential manner. Recent research in our lab has found a performance dissociation between two task switching paradigms in ML, a patient with reduced short-term memory (STM) capacity. The present study investigates the hypothesis that this dissociation is a result of memory load differences between the two shifting paradigms. We tested this hypothesis by measuring shifting abilities in patients with phonological and semantic short-term memory deficits, as well as age-matched controls under standard and articulatory suppression conditions. The results suggest that task-related memory demands impair the shifting performance of patients with STM deficits, and that phonological (but not semantic) retention contributes to shifting as task requirements increase. |
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Citation:
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Allen, Corinne. "Task switching and short-term retention: The role of memory load in task switching performance." Masters Thesis, Rice University, ETD http://hdl.handle.net/1911/62165. |
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Citable link to this page:
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http://hdl.handle.net/1911/62165 |
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Date:
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2010 |
