The Relationship between Working Memory Capacity and Strategy Use on Tests of General Fluid Intelligence

Despite many studies showing that high WMC individuals perform better on analytic reasoning and problem solving tasks, the cognitive mechanisms underlying these relationships are still poorly understood. A series of studies explored the link between WMC and performance on a popular test of gF, the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM; Raven, Raven, & Court, 1998), with the goal of assessing whether strategies might play a mediating role in the WMC and gF relationship. Additionally, it was assessed whether WMC allows individuals to use more effective (and complex) strategies, or to choose the most appropriate strategy for a problem. Using think-aloud protocols to assess strategies, as well an experimental manipulation to bias individuals towards certain strategies, it was determined that individual differences in strategy use can partially account for the relationship between WMC and performance on the RAPM. Additionally, it seems that high WMC individuals are not necessarily better at selecting the appropriate strategy for a problem, but are able to use more effective strategies.