The Relationship Between Working Memory Capacity and Executive Functioning: Evidence for a Common Executive Attention Construct

The study examines the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and executive function (EF) in older adults, using factor analysis to investigate if they share a common underlying construct, referred to as "executive attention." The results show that WMC and EF tasks share a large proportion of common variance, supporting the idea that these abilities are related. Additionally, the study found that age-related declines in executive attention can account for age-related declines in episodic memory, highlighting the importance of considering the interplay between multiple cognitive processes when examining age-related changes in cognition. The findings have implications for understanding cognitive aging and could inform strategies for maintaining cognitive function in older adulthood.