Working Memory Capacity, Perceptual Speed, and Fluid Intelligence: An Eye Movement Analysis

Abstract

Research has focused on the potential cognitive determinants of individual and developmental differences in intelligence. Two competing views influenced by information-processing theory propose important roles for the constructs of working memory capacity and perceptual speed, respectively. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between these constructs by examining the performance of younger adults who were high and low in working memory capacity on an experimental version of traditional perceptual speed tasks. The results suggested that working memory capacity is important for performance on perceptual speed tasks because of the attention and memory demands of these tasks. Eye-tracking measures corroborated the behavioral data, which suggest that individual differences on perceptual speed tasks are the result of individual differences in working memory capacity in healthy, younger adults.