This page provides access to two computer programs used to test children's working memory spans. These programs should run on any PowerPC Mac - earlier models have not been tested, and performance on these machines is not known. For details on these programs, please consult the author (John Towse, j.towse@lancs.ac.uk), and for experimental data from these programs, see Towse, Hitch & Hutton (1998, Journal of Memory and Language, v39, 195-217), and technical reports on response norms.

 

Operation Span - participants solve arithmetic questions and attempt to remember the numeric answers produced.

 

Reading Span - participants complete high-Cloze sentences and attempt to remember the words produced.

 

 

For both span tests, the program begins by requesting an order for test adminstration (a lengthy card question at the beginning or at the end of the sequence), and then proceeds to test working memory span, beginning with 2-item sets. For reading span, pressing carriage return informs the computer that the expected completion word was supplied; otherwise, type the word itself. For reading span, typing the first three letters of the recalled word suffices to trigger a correct response

 

To abort the programs, press the "+" character during card presentation. Performance is recorded in the data file at the completion of test adminstration, indicating for each trial, the material presented, the response latency, the response form, and the item eventually remembered.

Note: These computer programs were prepared as part of a research project supported by the Economic and Social Research Council.