The Effect of Working Memory Capacity on the Observational Learning of a Sequential Motor Task

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of working memory capacity on the observational learning of sequential timing tasks.
A quasi-experimental research was conducted on a number of 20 university students with a mean age of 21.5 years (SD = 1.5) who were selected through convenience sampling and were assigned to high and low working memory groups based on memory quotient scores. Wechler digit span adults test and Sequential timing apparatus were used to collect the data, and evaluate working memory quotient and relative and absolute timing, respectively. The task required participants to press four keys on a numeric keypad (2→6→8→4) with regard to the absolute and relative movement times. All participants observed 72 trials during the practice phase, and performed 12 trials during the immediate, delayed and transfer phases. Analysis of covariance was used to analyze the collected data.
The analyses demonstrated that during the immediate, delayed and transfer phases, relative and absolute timing errors were significantly lower for high working memory groups, but not for the low working memory groups.
Therefore, it seems that working memory capacity may affect learning sequential motor tasks during observational learning.