Affiliations: Cognitive Motor Neuroscience Group, Sobell Department
of Motor Neuroscience & Movement Disorders, UCL Institute of Neurology, The
National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London,
UK | Centre for Palliative Care, Kings College, London,
UK | Department of Psychology, School of Psychology and
Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK | Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of
Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA | Department of Neurology, Division of
Neurorehabilitation, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Note: [] Corresponding author: Prof. M. Jahanshahi, Sobell Department of
Motor Neuroscience & Movement Disorders, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
Tel.: +44 207837 3611 ext 3055; Fax: +44 71 278 9836, E-mail:
m.jahanshahi@ion.ucl.ac.uk
Abstract: The objective of this study was to compare performance on different
versions of the running span task, and to examine the relationship between task
performance and tests of episodic memory and executive function. We found that
the average capacity of the running span was approximately 4 digits, and at
long sequence lengths, performance was no longer affected by varying the
running span window. Both episodic and executive function measures correlated
with short and long running spans, suggesting that a simple dissociation
between immediate memory and executive processes in short and long running
digit span tasks may not be warranted.
