The Sternberg Paradigm: Correcting Encoding Latencies in Visual and Auditory Test Designs.

Julian Klabes,Babak Zandi,Tran Quoc Khanh,Sebastian Babilon

doi:10.3390/vision5020021

Julian Klabes, Babak Zandi + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/vision5020021

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Abstract

The Sternberg task is a widely used tool for assessing the working memory performance in vision and cognitive science. It is possible to apply a visual or auditory variant of the Sternberg task to query the memory load. However, previous studies have shown that the subjects’ corresponding reaction times differ dependent on the used variant. In this work, we present an experimental approach that is intended to correct the reaction time differences observed between auditory and visual item presentation. We found that the subjects’ reaction time offset is related to the encoding speed of a single probe item. After correcting for these individual encoding latencies, differences in the results of both the auditory and visual Sternberg task become non-significant, . Thus, an equal task difficulty can be concluded for both variants of item presentation.

Highlights

Paradigm: Correcting EncodingThe working memory is an essential metric in visual cognition, information processing, multitasking, and attention deployment [1,2,3,4]
The question that should be addressed as part of the discussion in this work is whether such fundamental differences in the processing of visual and auditory stimuli translate to different difficulties of the respective Sternberg variants and, require the recruitment of different amounts of cognitive effort in the anticipation of task fulfillment
The Sternberg paradigm was discussed in the context of serving as a probe for measuring the mobilized mental effort with regard to another primary outcome variable

Summary

Introduction

The working memory is an essential metric in visual cognition, information processing, multitasking, and attention deployment [1,2,3,4]. It can be considered as the brain’s ability to temporarily store and recall small amounts of information over brief periods of time and underlies the concept of short-term memory [5]. The Sternberg task starts with a memorizing phase during which the memory set, i.e., a string of digits of variable length, is sequentially presented to the subjects, who need to store this information in their working memory. A test digit/stimulus is presented to the subjects who have to decide by a method of forced-choice whether or not this probe was part of the memory set as fast as possible [13]

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