Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task as a Measure of Working Memory: Designing the Persian Version and Evaluating the Psychometric Properties in Iranian Children

Working memory plays an important role in different cognitive abilities and psychiatric disorders. The current study aimed at designing the Persian version and evaluating the psychometric properties of the paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT) to measure working memory in children.
The present cross sectional, correlational study was conducted on 240 normal children aged 8 to 12 years. PASAT is used to evaluate working memory. Exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha were used to evaluate the validity and reliability of the test. Digit span test was also used to evaluate the concurrent validity. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 22 using the Pearson correlation coefficient.
Exploratory factor analysis showed the satisfactory results of a 5-stages serial test to assess psychometric properties of PASAT in order to measure working memory in children. Cronbach's alpha was 0.85. The correlation between different stages of PASAT and digit span test was significant that confirmed concurrent validity of the test.
PASAT is a proper test to measure working memory in children with satisfactory psychometric properties.