Central executive of working memory - An approach of dual-task of visuospatial and auditory digit memory

Central executive (CE) is the core of working memory. CE is a limited-resou rces attentional control system. However, there are many questions about CE such as how much the contribution of CE to memory performance and the reso urces of CE is. Dual-task is a main method in the studies of CE. There were some methodological problems in previous studies. A new dual-task, Corsi t apping and recall of auditory digits, is used in the present experiments to quantitatively study CE. The results indicate that the recall of digits is not affected under low Corsi load, but the recall significantly decreased with the increase of Corsi load. It suggests the competition for the resour ces of CE between the two tasks. The resources of CE are estimated, and CE- resources and efficiency models are proposed based on these results. The pr esent method may become a tool for the quantitative study of CE.