The influence of context on the usage of working memory capacity expressed in bits

Abstract

Despite significant differences in the definitions of the mechanisms of working memory (WM) functioning, most researchers accept the limited capacity of this part of memory. Such models assume that WM can process a given amount of information in a limited time. The main aim of this study was to verify the capacity of working memory expressed in bits and estimated by the authors of previous study. It was investigated whether the usage of different testing procedures, in terms of the quality and the bit values of particular objects memorised by the participants, influences the capacity of WM defined as a sum of bit values of all the objects processed simultaneously in WM. In order to convert the number of recalled signs into the bit value, we used the classic Shannon’s formula. The achieved results confirmed previously estimated capacity of working memory at about 31 bits. The usage of objects with strong contexts (digits, numbers) caused significant differences in the capacity of working memory between sexes. The results suggested that filling the limited capacity of working memory took place by means of context-dependent encoding algorithms.