The cognitive processes of task performance and their associations with working memory

Abstract

This study investigated the mental processes of task performance and their associations with working memory under strategic and unpressured within-task planning conditions. The results showed that strategic planning facilitated encoding while unpressured within-task planning enhanced monitoring. It was also found that strategic planners were more meaning-oriented while unpressured within-task planners were more form-focused, although they both groups paid more attention to form than meaning. The results also revealed that in strategic planning, working memory did not show significant associations with either encoding or monitoring. Under the unpressured-within task planning condition, however, working memory was positively correlated with monitoring but negatively correlated with encoding.