An n-back task using vibrotactile stimulation with comparison to an auditory analogue
Citation:
Klatzky, R.L., Giudice, N.A., Marston, J.R., Tietz, J.D., Golledge, R.G., & Loomis, J.M. (2008). An n-back task using vibrotactile stimulation with comparison to an auditory analogue. Behavior Research Methods, 40(1), 367-372.
Abstract:
We report a vibrotactile version of the common n-back task used to study working memory. Subjects wore vibrotactile stimulators on three fingers of one hand, and they responded by pressing a button with the other hand whenever the current finger matched the one stimulated n items back. Experiment 1 showed a steep decline in performance as n increased from 1 to 3; each additional level of n decreased performance by 1.5 d' units on average. Experiment 2 supported a central capacity locus for the vibrotactile task by showing that it correlated strongly with an auditory analogue; both tasks were also related to standard digit span. The vibrotactile version of n-back may be particularly useful in dual-task contexts. It allows the assessment of cognitive capacity in sensory-impaired populations in which touch remains intact, and it may find use in brain-imaging studies in which vibrotactile stimuli impose a memory load.
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Comments
This paper is a follow-up
This paper is a follow-up from our 2006 Klatzky et al. JEP- Applied paper. It definitively demonstrates that use of the Vibrotactile N-back method, first described in the 2006 article, is a valid technique to test working memory capacity. Results show that the Vibrotactile and auditory variants of the N-back task yield similar results across several levels of N, findings which open the door for this technique in future studies assessing cognitive load demands on working memory capacity (particularly for multimodal investigations).