The role of working memory in command and control tasks

There has been considerable debate about the role of working memory in everyday tasks because many of the experiments used to elucidate the properties of working memory are based on the manipulation of abstract data that has limited relevance to information stored in task-relevant areas of long-term memory (Chase and Anders Ericsson, 1981; Anders Ericsson and Delaney, 1999). This paper assesses the contribution of working memory to performance of a simulated command and control task, at different times of the day. The traditional capacity measures of working memory and mood, which may affect command and control performance, are known to vary with time of day. It was hypothesised that both command and control performance and participants mood would vary according to time of day, with both factors correlated with working memory performance.