Working memory performance in adverse environments: Enhanced, impaired, or intact?use asterix (*) to get italics

Stefan Vermeent, Anna-Lena Schubert, Meriah L. DeJoseph, Jaap J. A. Denissen, Jean-Louis van Gelder, Willem E. FrankenhuisPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"

2024

<p>Decades of research have shown that adversity tends to lower working memory (WM) performance. This literature has mainly focused on impairments in the overall capacity to hold information available in WM for further processing. However, some recent adaptation-based studies suggest that certain types of adversity can leave intact, or even enhance, the ability to rapidly update information in WM. One key issue in evaluating deficits and adaptations in WM is that WM capacity and updating tasks tend to covary. This is likely due to the fact that both types of tasks require the creation and maintenance of bindings in WM; links between mental representations of information in WM. To estimate the associations between adversity and different processes in WM, we need to isolate variance in performance related to WM capacity from variance in performance related to updating ability. In this Registered Report, we combine archived and newly collected data in the Dutch Longitudinal Internet studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) panel, which includes a representative sample of the Dutch adult population.<br>Participants completed three WM tasks: two complex span tasks and a task measuring both binding and updating of information. In addition, we will derive estimates of participants' exposure to neighborhood threat, material deprivation, and unpredictability. Using structural equation modeling, we will estimate associations between the three types of adversity and latent estimates of WM capacity and updating. These findings will advance our theoretical understanding of how adversity is associated with WM, which will aid the development of interventions aimed at alleviating performance difficulties and leveraging areas of strengths.</p>

working memory, adversity, deficits, adaptation

NonePlease indicate the methods that may require specialised expertise during the peer review process (use a comma to separate various required expertises).

Social sciences

Satoru Saito [saito.satoru.2z@kyoto-u.ac.jp] suggested: Dr. Sho Ishiguro, ishiguro.sho.7u@kyoto-u.ac.jp No need for them to be recommenders of PCI Registered Reports. Please do not suggest reviewers for whom there might be a conflict of interest. Reviewers are not allowed to review preprints written by close colleagues (with whom they have published in the last four years, with whom they have received joint funding in the last four years, or with whom they are currently writing a manuscript, or submitting a grant proposal), or by family members, friends, or anyone for whom bias might affect the nature of the review - see the code of conduct

2023-10-30 15:11:48

Yuki Yamada

Anonymous, Kathryn Bates