The multiple faces of working memory:: Storage, processing, supervision, and coordination

Working memory capacity was differentiated along functional and content-related facets. Twenty-four tasks were constructed to operationalize the cells of the proposed taxonomy. We tested 133 university students with the new tasks, together with six working memory marker tasks. With structural equation models, three working memory functions could be distinguished: Simultaneous storage and processing, supervision, and coordination of elements into structures. Each function was further subdivided into distinct components of variance. On the content dimension, evidence for a dissociation between verbal-numerical working memory and spatial working memory was comparatively weak. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.