Letter and Colour Matching Tasks: Parametric Measures of Developmental Working Memory Capacity

Figure 1

The colour matching tasks (CMT) and letter matching tasks (LMT). Simple and complex figures in the CMT (left) and LMT (right) tasks. A WM capacity of 3 (WM capacity = (# of colours/letters) + 1) is shown for the simple CMT and LMT (top), and a WM capacity of 4 (WM capacity = (# of colours/letters) + 2) for the complex (bottom) CMT and LMT tasks. In both versions children are taught to ignore irrelevant colours (blue and green) and letters (“O” and “P”) and the location and repetition of test items. The complex versions also require participants to ignore the clown’s face and the large figural A, in the CMT and LMT, respectively.