Assessment of working memory performance in self-ordered selection tests.

Several well-known neuropsychological tests of working memory performance, hitherto thought to be unrelated, in fact share a common structure termed here the self-ordered selection paradigm. Examples include the subject-ordered pointing task, variants of the Corsi blocks test, the multiple-location search task, and the letter-recitation task. The defining features of the paradigm are outlined. A statistical framework for assessing and testing hypotheses about working memory capacity in the self-ordered selection paradigm is described. To enable neuropsychologists to conduct a rapid statistical analysis of working memory performance, a computer program is presented along with detailed practical examples of three useful statistical procedures for both single-case and group-based analysis. The program may be accessed and executed online over the Internet.