Reading Span Task (RSPAN)

Background

The Reading Span task, developed by Meredyth Daneman and Patricia Carpenter in 1980, was one of the first "complex span" task to measure working memory, requiring participants to simultaneously process new information and store specific items for later recall. The Automated Reading Span Task (RSPAN) is a standardized, computerized version of this classic test and was introduced by Randy Engle and colleagues in 2005, together with other span tasks such as the Automated Operation Span (OSPAN) as well as the Automated Symmetry Span (SYMMSPAN) task.

Both OSPAN and RSPAN tasks target verbal working memory; the first under constraints of interfering mathematical processing, the second under the constraints of interfering semantic processing. The SYMMSPAN targets visuo-spatial memory instead.

Task Procedure

The RSPAN combines a letter-span task (participants recall a sequence of serially presented letters) with a simple semantic evaluation task (participants judge whether a sentence is true or false). Participants first solve a sentence problem before they receive a letter to memorize. This sequence is repeated until all letters of the current span length have been presented at which point the letter recall screen is presented.

Letter Span Task

In the letter-span task, participants are shown, one at a time, a series of letters randomly drawn from a pool of 12, followed by a matrix of all 12 letters. They must the recall the sequence by clicking each letter in the order it was presented. Feedback is provided indicating the number of letters correctly recalled, with letters recalled in the wrong position treated as incorrect.

Sentence Task

In the sentence task, participants are shown a sentence such as "Andy was stopped by the policeman because he crossed the yellow heaven" and are instructed to click the mouse button once they've read the sentence and judged it to be sensical or not. A new screen appears with the statement "This sentence makes sense" and two response buttons labeled "TRUE" and "FALSE", which they must click to indicate whether they agree that the statement made sense (True) or not (False). Feedback is then provided indicating if their response was correct. A timeout of 5000 is imposed during practice. The timeout is adjusted up or down for the test phase depending on practice performance.

While the main measure taken by the test is recall performance, participants are instructed to work at a high performance level (at least 85% correct) on the sentence evaluation task.

What it Measures

The RSPAN is a measure of (verbal) working memory capacity.

Psychological domains

• Executive Functioning
• Working Memory: Working memory maintenance during active processing of distracting information
• Fluid Intelligence: Strongly correlated (.45 - .55) with Gf
• Reading Comprehension: Ability to deduce meaning from written text

Main Performance Metrics

• RSPAN Score: Total number of correct letters recalled in the correct position in perfectly recalled sets
• Partial-credit unit (PCU): Total number of correct letters recalled relative to the total letters presented

Psychiatric Conditions

RSPAN performance tends to be impaired in patients with the following psychiatric conditions:

• Bipolar Disorder
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Schizophrenia
• Major Depressive Disorder
• Anxiety Disorders
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder