Occupation shapes cognition? The case of restaurant ticket collectors' working memory updating ability

Autor: Xin Zhao, Liang Jin, Zhu Xiaoliang, Joseph H. R. Maes
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Applied Cognitive Psychology, 37, 520-530
Applied Cognitive Psychology, 37, 3, pp. 520-530
ISSN: 0888-4080
Popis: Contains fulltext : 292572.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Previous research revealed associations between an individual's occupation and cognitive abilities. However, the underlying causal relation is not always clear and only few studies focused on a critical component of executive functioning, namely working memory updating (WMU). Study 1 examined whether restaurant ticket collectors (N = 53) have a better WMU ability compared to a group of security guards (N = 49) that was matched on relevant variables. Study 2 examined transfer effects of a computerized working memory training program in students. The program simulated elements of a restaurant ticket collector's daily work requirements. In Study 1, the ticket collectors performed better than the guards on WMU tasks. In Study 2, using an active control group (N = 33) as comparison, the trained students (N = 33) displayed beneficial training effects on transfer WMU tasks but not on general intelligence tasks. The results support the general notion of repeated experience with occupation-specific demands affecting specific objectively-assessed cognitive abilities. 11 p.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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