COULD WORKING MEMORY PREDICT
PERFORMANCE IN DIFFERENT STUDY TASKS?
Hanák Róbert
University of Economics in Bratislava, Faculty of Business Management
(SLOVAKIA)
INTRODUCTION
• In this article we investigated predictive ability of working memory on different
study task all measured by study results and were related to information
technologies. 75 students (22 men) of management study from Slovakia participate
in research.
• Surprisingly learning two similar types of new software correlated significantly with
working memory which could be used also as predictor. As expected, working
memory had no relationship with the case study about analysing IT status of a
specific company. Contrary to our expectations, working memory did not correlate
with the final exam, which was based purely on memorizing. Those with better
working memory (one SD above mean) also did not differ significantly from mean
group or low group in study results except the ERP task.
INTRODUCTION
• Information technologies are important part of modern economy [1] and their importance
has been growing [2]. Therefore, it is crucial to prepare young generation to use IT
technologies properly. However, we first need to know which psychological factors are
connected with acquiring IT knowledge
• Good memory and ability to memorize well is usually associated with those study tasks
where student is required to possess encyclopaedic knowledge. However, practical
knowledge is at least of the same importance
• According to our knowledge, working memory and its relationship with learning, analysing
or comparing new software has not yet been investigated. Therefore, the aim of this study is
to investigate relationship between working memory and study results in the course of
Managerial Informatics.
PARTICIPANTS
• 75 students (22 men) of University of Economics in Slovakia were tested in
their fifth semester of bachelor study in the course Managerial Informatics.
They all were 21 years old. They participated for extra credit, without
financial incentive. Data were collected in ten sessions in 2012 from
respondents from Slovakia. No exclusion criteria or any restriction for
participants were implemented.
MEASURES
• Study results : For measuring study results we used scores from five different tasks. Two tasks
measured how well students understood and learned to use the accounting software Alpha (5 points)
and Omega (7 points) from Kros Corporation. Third task measured an ability to search in internet,
compare data and answer 30 questions about ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software (8 points).
Fourth task was a case study of real specific company (10 points). Last task measured the ability to
memorize data for final exam in Managerial Informatics (70 points).
• Working memory : In this paper we define working memory as ability to properly remember as many
business characteristics as possible (e.g. profitability, price, potential market, etc.). These characteristics
were taken from Canadian Invention Assistance Program and were analyzed by Åstebro and Elhedhli
[3].
RESULTS
• In average, 53.24% remembered characteristics were correct, which is almost the
same amount as improperly remembered. Gender comparison showed that
although men remembered little more characteristic (M= 6.73; SD = 2.19) than
women (M= 6.60; SD = 3.33), difference was not significant.
• According to number of properly remembered characteristics students were
assigned to three groups: good memory (1 standard deviation above mean), poor
memory (1 standard deviation below mean) and average group, which were in range
between standard deviations. There were no significant differences between these
groups in task solving, except ERP task, where group with good memory had the
best score and differed significantly from other two groups: F(2) = 3.686; p = .03.
Table 1. Correlations between amount of properly remembered characteristics and study results for all
participants
N = 75
Alpha software
Amount of r = .270;
properly
p = .019
remembered
characteristi
cs
Omega
software
Exam
memorizing
r = .256;
Specific
ERP
company case information
study
search
r = .023;
r = .286;
p = .027
p = .847
p = .471
p = .013
r = .085;
CONCLUSION
• Our results contradicted our expectations. Remembering business
characteristics to be able to assess business plan correctly was expected to be
in the strongest relationship with the task, where it seemed that mostly
memory was necessary to get the top performance – memorising for the
final exam. This assumption was not supported by the results. Although
learning to use new software and searching for information about ERP
software was not expected to be related with working memory, our results
proved other way. It seems that practical working memory performance has
stronger effect on other learning tasks than originally expected.
REFERENCES
• Kokles, M.; Romanová, A. (2004) : Využívanie informačných systémov v slovenských podnikoch. Ekonomický časopis : časopis
pre ekonomickú teóriu a hospodársku politiku = Journal of economics. - Bratislava : Slovak Academic Press, 52, č. 8, pp. 1009-1026
• Štangová, N., Víghová, A. (2013) Information System-Basis for Successful Management of the Organization. International
Journal of Advances in Management and Economics. pp. 8-12.
• T. Åstebro and S. Elhedhli, “The Effectiveness of Simple Decision Heuristics : A Case Study of Experts ’ Forecasts of the
Commercial Success of Early-Stage Ventures,” Manage. Sci., vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 395–409, 2006.
• Ballová Mikušková, E., (2013). “Intuícia:dobrý sluha, zlý pán?” In. Hanák, R., Ballová Mikušková, E., Čavojová, V. (Eds.)
ROZHODOVANIE A USUDZOVANIE IV. Bratislava: Ústav experimentálnej psychológie SAV, 34-47
• Čavojová, V. (2013a) “O racionalite intuície”. In. Hanák, R., Ballová Mikušková, E., Čavojová, V. (Eds.)
ROZHODOVANIE A USUDZOVANIE IV. Bratislava: Ústav experimentálnej psychológie SAV, 11-33
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