While memory is the faculty that affords us learning, adaptation and development, it is our executive function that oversees, manages and organizes these abilities. Still, there is limited research on the interaction between memory and executive function. The present study investigated this relationship through Principal Components Analysis. Performances on accepted measures of memory and executive function were evaluated in an adult clinical sample. Components were retained using three criteria: a predetermined four-component structure, eigenvalues exceeding a value of one, and parallel analysis. Results demonstrated that a four-component model most accurately represented the data. Analyses also revealed that measures of immediate and delayed memory did not uniquely assess memory but instead loaded onto components associated with visual and verbal processing. The findings were shown to be in support of the brain working in an integrated, systematic manner in which abilities hierarchically ascend from arousal to tertiary function. Consequently, several accepted measures of memory and executive function failed to measure cognitive capacity unique from visual and verbal processing, placing their construct validity and efficacy in question.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nova.edu/oai:nsuworks.nova.edu:cps_stuetd-1091 |
| Date | 01 January 2015 |
| Creators | Tourgeman, Isaac |
| Publisher | NSUWorks |
| Source Sets | Nova Southeastern University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | College of Psychology Theses and Dissertations |
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