Role of Verbal Working Memory in Complex Skill Acquisition

Abstract

Although research has shown that general cognitive ability is related to performance during the initial stage of skill acquisition, empirical evidence is needed to increase understanding of the primary abilities responsible for the relation. We propose that verbal working memory is related to initial skill acquisition performance based on cognitive activities people enact when learning complex skills. After completing a general cognitive ability measure and a test of verbal working memory, 120 undergraduate students performed a complex computer simulation. The working memory test accounted for a meaningful amount of performance variance after statistically controlling for the general cognitive ability measure. These data suggest that tasks depending heavily on the activation of multiple knowledge structures may be understood in terms of individual differences in working memory.