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The present study was conducted to investigate relationship between working memory (WM) capacity and the constituents of EPQ-R, especially trait measures relating to neuroticism and extraversion. 125 participants volunteered (Mean age= 20.96, SD= ± 1.33), out of which 59 were female and 67 were males, to participate in the present study. EPQ-R questionnaire was used to measure personality and modified Automated operation span task (AOSPAN) was adapted to measure working memory capacity of participants. It is a dual task condition in which participants were required to perform memory task as well as simple mathematical equations. Participants had to recall letters in order of presentation in each set with maintaining minimum 80% accuracy on mathematical portion of the task. Results revealed that extravert participants showed superior working memory capacity than introvert and ambivert participants. Moreover, high neuroticism group perform shoddier on WM task in comparison to low and intermediate neuroticism group.
Keywords: personality, working memory capacity, extraversión, neuroticism
Scholarly interest in individual differences has been quite evident since its conception suggests that ability is not sole factor responsible for individual differences in performance as personality influences both style and efficiency of performance. Personality refers to stable individual differences, especially differences in temperament, disposition, or character (Funder, 2001; Larsen & Buss, 2002). Numerous studies have inquested the relationship between personality and cognitive abilities. In recent past relationship between personality and cognitive functions has emerged as a potential area of research in cognitive psychology and helpful to characterize and diagnose cognitive impairment.
Cognitive abilities being extensively studied by researchers to relate with personality traits mostly rely on extraversión and neuroticism. Extraversión being associated with positive effect, gregariousness, and arousability, whereas neuroticism is associated with unstable and especially negative affects (e.g. depression, anxiety). Howarth (1963) has investigated effects of extraversión and introversion on several performance measures like time judgement, breath holding, immediate memory span, line reproduction, leg persistence, set change, kinesthetic figurai after-effect. Introverts performed better on line reproduction and set change task, whereas extraverts were better on leg persistence task. However, no specific differences in performance were found between introverts and extraverts on other task categories. Isaksen, Lauer and Wilson (2003) have investigated the relationship between Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) with cognitive style and strong relationship...