Effect of personality on working memory capacity

Pages:150-154
Shalini Dubey and Indramani L. Singh (Cognitive Science Laboratory, Department of Psychology Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, U.P.)
Sudha Srivastava (Department of Psychology Vasant Kanya Mahavidyalai, Varanasi, U.P.)

The present study was conducted to investigate relationship between working memory (WM) capacity and the constituents of EPQ-R, especially trait measures relating to neuroticism and extraversion.125 participants volunteered (Mean age= 20.96, SD= ± 1.33), out of which 59 were female and 67 were males, to participate in the present study. EPQ-R questionnaire was used to measure personality and modified Automated operation span task (AOSPAN) was adapted to measure working memory capacity of participants. It is a dual task condition in which participants were required to perform memory task as well as simple mathematical equations. Participants had to recall letters in order of presentation in each set with maintaining minimum 80% accuracy on mathematical portion of the task. Results revealed that extravert participants showed superior working memory capacity than introvert and ambivert participants. Moreover, high neuroticism group perform shoddier on WM task in comparison to low and intermediate neuroticism group.