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Published online: 21 October 2014
© Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2014
Abstract One of the reasons why working memory capacity is so widely researched is its substantial relationship with fluid intelligence. Although this relationship has been found in numerous studies, researchers have been unable to provide a conclusive answer as to why the two constructs are related. In a recent study, researchers examined which attributes of Raven's Progressive Matrices were most strongly linked with working memory capacity (Wiley, Jarosz, Cushen, & Colflesh, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37, 256-263, 2011). In that study, Raven's problems that required a novel combination of rules to solve were more strongly correlated with working memory capacity than were problems that did not. In the present study, we wanted to conceptually replicate the Wiley et al. results while controlling for a few potential confounds. Thus, we experimentally manipulated whether a problem required a novel combination of rules and found that repeated-rule-combination problems were more strongly related to working memory capacity than were novel-rule-combination problems. The relationship to other measures of fluid intelligence did not change based on whether the problem required a novel rule combination.
Keywords Working memory . Intelligence
Working memory consists of a system of temporary memory stores, the functions of retrieval and maintenance into and out of those stores, and the executive attention necessary to the performance of these functions. Working memory capacity (WMC) refers to the effectiveness of the working memory system for a given individual. One of the most ubiquitous and important findings in the study of WMC is its strong relationship to fluid intelligence (Gf), the ability to solve novel reasoning problems. The nature of this relationship has been heavily debated, with some researchers arguing that WMC and Gf are essentially the same construct (e.g., Martínez et al., 2011), and others claiming that the two constructs are clearly separable (e.g., Ackerman, Beier, & Boyle, 2005; Heitz et al., 2006; Kane, Hambrick, & Conway, 2005). Although many studies have demonstrated the relationship between WMC and Gf (e.g., Engle & Kane, 2004; Engle, Tuholski, Laughlin, & Conway, 1999; Kane et al., 2004), the underlying cause of the correlation has not been identified. Researchers have suggested a number of alternative possibilities. Engle and Kane...