Relations among mental capacity, Short-term Storage Space, and operational efficiency

Pascual-Leone and Baddeley's Models of Information Processing as Predictors of Academic Performance

The main purpose was to compare whether Pascual-Leone and Baddeley's models of information processing can explain performance of 83 Venezuelan freshman students in subjects such as chemistry, physics, mathematics, and language (Spanish). All students were tested on (a) Working Memory Span based on an adaptation of the Daneman and Carpenter task by Baddeley and colleagues, (b) Structural Mental Capacity based on Pascual-Leone's Figural Intersection Test with no time limit, (c) Pascual-Leone's Functional mental capacity based on the Figural Intersection Test with a time limit, (d) Witkin's field dependence/independence based on the Group Embedded Figures Test, and (e) formal operational reasoning based on the Group Assessment of Logical Thinking. Multiple regression analyses showed that compared to scores on Working Memory Span, scores on both the Group Assessment of Logical Thinking and Structural Mental Capacity are better predictors of performance in science courses. Scores on Working Memory Span, however, are better predictors in the language course. Simultaneous processing of a large number of bits of information (Pascual-Leone's Structural Mental Capacity) may be a more important constraint on performance in science courses than a model that postulates the storage and processing of information at the same time (Baddeley's working memory).

Further evidence relating mental capacity, short-term storage space, and operational efficiency

According to R. Case, a subject's Total Processing Space is the sum of his Short-term Storage Space (STSS) and Operating Space (OS). Case has hypothesized a trade-off between the two, that is, an increase in operational efficiency leads to a decrease in Operating Space and consequently more Short-term Storage Space is available for information processing. To test this hypothesis 137 high school students were tested to estimate operational efficiency (assigned a time limit to finish the Figural Intersection Test), Pascual-Leone's Structural M-capacity, Ms (i.e., STSS in Case's model), and Functional M-capacity, Mf. Besides other results a significant positive correlation of .37 was obtained between operational efficiency and Ms/STSS, which suggests that subjects find it difficult to distribute attentional load from one reserve (OS) to another (STSS).