“Working Memory Capacity and Strategy Use on the RAPM”, 2019-11 ():
Despite many studies showing that high working memory capacity (WMC) individuals perform better on analytic reasoning and problem-solving tasks, the cognitive mechanisms underlying these relationships are still under debate.
The present work explored the link between WMC and performance on a popular test of fluid intelligence (gf), the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM; Raven et al 199826ya), with the goal of assessing whether strategies might play a mediating role in the WMC and gf relationship. Using think-aloud protocols to assess strategies, it was determined that:
individual differences in strategy use on the RAPM partially mediated the relationship between WMC and performance. In addition, evidence suggested that participants decreased their use of “constructive matching” strategies as item difficulty increased. Finally, think-aloud protocols provided evidence for a third, hybrid strategy: “isolate-and-eliminate”.
This new strategy goes beyond constructive matching and response elimination, using aspects of each.