TY - JOUR A1 - Hornig, R. A1 - Oberauer, Klaus A1 - Weidenfeld, Andrea T1 - Two principles of premise integration in spatial reasoning N2 - We propose two principles that facilitate integration of two relational premises in spatial reasoning. Integration is easier if the anaphor in the second premise, P2, bears the role of the relatum (relatum = given). Moreover, integration is easier if, in P2, the anaphor is mentioned before the new element (given-new). In premises with canonical word order (grammatical subjects mentioned first), these principles always conflict with one another. In topicalized statements mentioning the prepositional phrase first, the two principles work in tandem. By varying word order, we tested the two principles by measuring P2 comprehension times. Comprehension times indicated that integration was easiest when P2 obeyed both principles and most difficult when both principles were violated. Canonical premises were of intermediate difficulty. This pattern emerged regardless of whether the anaphor was a definite description or a pronoun Y1 - 2005 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oberauer, Klaus A1 - Vockenberg, Kerstin T1 - Updating of working memory : lingering bindings N2 - Three experiments investigated proactive interference and proactive facilitation in a memory-updating paradigm. Participants remembered several letters or spatial patterns, distinguished by their spatial positions, and updated them by new stimuli up to 20 times per trial. Self-paced updating times were shorter when an item previously remembered and then replaced reappeared in the same location than when it reappeared in a different location. This effect demonstrates residual memory for no-longer-relevant bindings of items to locations. The effect increased with the number of items to be remembered. With one exception, updating times did not increase, and recall of final values did not decrease, over successive updating steps, thus providing little evidence for proactive interference building up cumulatively. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=journal&issn=1747-0218 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/17470210802372912 SN - 1747-0218 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wilhelm, Oliver A1 - Oberauer, Klaus T1 - Why are reasoning ability and working memory capacity related to mental speed? An investigation of stimulus- response compatibility in choice reaction time tasks N2 - A study with 114 young adults investigated the correlations of intelligence factors and working-memory capacity with reaction time (RT) tasks. Within two sets of four-choice RT tasks, stimulus-response compatibility was varied over three levels: compatible, incompatible, and arbitrary mappings. Two satisfactory measurement models for the RTs could be established: A general factor model without constraints on the loadings and a nested model with two correlated factors, distinguishing compatible from arbitrary mappings, with constraints on the loadings. Structural models additionally including factors for working memory and intelligence showed that the nested model with correlated factors is superior in fit. Working-memory capacity and fluid intelligence were correlated strongly with the nested factor for the RT tasks with arbitrary mappings, and less with the general RT factor. The results support the hypothesis that working memory is needed to maintain arbitrary bindings between stimulus representations and response representations, and this could explain the correlation of working-memory capacity with speed in choice RT tasks Y1 - 2006 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09541440500215921 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oberauer, Klaus A1 - Schulze, Ralf A1 - Wilhelm, Oliver A1 - Süss, Heinz-Martin T1 - Working memory and intelligence : their correlation and their relation ; Comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005) N2 - On the basis of a mete-analysis of pairwise correlations between working memory tasks and cognitive ability measures, P. L. Ackerman. M. E. Beier, and M. O. Boyle (2005) claimed that working memory capacity (WMC) shares less than 25% of its variance with general intelligence (,;) and with reasoning ability. In this comment, the authors argue that this is an underestimation because of several methodological shortcomings and biases. A reanalysis of the data reported in Ackerman et al. using the correct statistical procedures demonstrates that g and WMC are very highly correlated. On a conceptual level. the authors point out that WMC should be regarded as an explanatory construct for intellectual abilities. Theories of working memory do not claim that WMC is isomorphic with intelligence factors but that it is a very strong predictor of reasoning ability and also predicts general fluid intelligence and g. Y1 - 2005 SN - 0033-2909 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oberauer, Klaus A1 - Süß, Heinz-Martin T1 - Working memory and interference : a comment on Jenkins, Myerson, Hale, and Fry (1999) Y1 - 2000 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oberauer, Klaus A1 - Suess, Heinz-Martin A1 - Schulze, Ralf A1 - Wilhelm, Otto A1 - Wittmann, W. W. T1 - Working memory capacity - facets of a cognitive ability construct Y1 - 2000 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oberauer, Klaus A1 - Weidenfeld, Andrea A1 - Hörnig, Robin T1 - Working memory capacity and the construction of spatial mental models in comprehension and deductive reasoning N2 - We asked 149 high-school students who were pretested for their working memory capacity (WMC) to read spatial descriptions relating to five objects and to evaluate conclusions asserting an unmentioned relationship between two of the objects. Unambiguous descriptions were compatible with a single spatial arrangement, whereas ambiguous descriptions permitted two arrangements; a subset of the ambiguous descriptions still determined the relation asserted in the conclusion, whereas another subset did not. Two groups of participants received different instructions: The deduction group should accept conclusions only if they followed with logical necessity from the description, whereas the comprehension group should accept a conclusion if it agreed with their representation of the arrangement. Self-paced reading times increased on sentences that introduced an ambiguity, replicating previous findings in deductive reasoning experiments. This effect was also found in the comprehension group, casting doubt on the interpretation that people consider multiple possible arrangements online. Responses to conclusions could be modelled by a multinomial processing model with four parameters: the probability of constructing a correct mental model, the probability of detecting an ambiguity, and two guessing parameters. Participants with high and with low WMC differed mainly in the probability of successfully constructing a mental model Y1 - 2006 UR - http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=journal&issn=1747-0218 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/17470210500151717 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rodriguez-Villagra, Odir Antonio A1 - Göthe, Katrin A1 - Oberauer, Klaus A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - Working memory capacity in a go/no-go task - age differences in interference, processing speed, and attentional control JF - Developmental psychology N2 - We tested the limits of working-memory capacity (WMC) of young adults, old adults, and children with a memory-updating task. The task consisted of mentally shifting spatial positions within a grid according to arrows, their color signaling either only go (control) or go/no-go conditions. The interference model (IM) of Oberauer and Kliegl (2006) was simultaneously fitted to the data of all groups. In addition to the 3 main model parameters (feature overlap, noise, and processing rate), we estimated the time for switching between go and no-go steps as a new model parameter. In this study, we examined the IM parameters across the life span. The IM parameter estimates show that (a) conditions were not different in interference by feature overlap and interference by confusion; (b) switching costs time; (c) young adults and children were less susceptible than old adults to interference due to feature overlap; (d) noise was highest for children, followed by old and young adults; (e) old adults differed from children and young adults in lower processing rate; and (f) children and old adults had a larger switch cost between go steps and no-go steps. Thus, the results of this study indicated that across age, the IM parameters contribute distinctively for explaining the limits of WMC. KW - working memory capacity KW - interference model KW - inhibition KW - children KW - old adults and young adults Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030883 SN - 0012-1649 VL - 49 IS - 9 SP - 1683 EP - 1696 PB - American Psychological Association CY - Washington ER -