Short-term and working memory tasks

A small set of items must be held, and sometimes manipulated, over a delay of seconds before a probe or reproduction; span, capacity or set-size effects are the measures.

This family contains 7 tasks.

Task	Short definition	Processes
Change Detection Task	Brief sample array followed after a blank delay by a probe array; participant reports whether any item changed…	4
Corsi Block-Tapping Task	Experimenter taps a sequence on spatially arranged blocks; participant reproduces the sequence forward or back…	4
Delayed Match-to-Sample Task	Sample stimulus followed by a delay and then a probe or choice array; response indicates whether the probe mat…	4
Digit Span Task	Auditory or visual digit sequences reproduced in forward or backward order; longest correctly reproduced lengt…	5
N-Back Task	Continuous stream in which each item must be compared to the one n items back; accuracy and RT index working m…	5
Operation Span Task	Alternating arithmetic verification and word/letter memory items; complex-span score indexes working memory ca…	5
Sternberg Item Recognition Task	Short memory set followed by a probe; yes/no judgment of set membership. RT typically scales linearly with set…	5