Working Memory Capacities of Teaching College Students Differ by Academic Field: High School Sports Teachers on Top

¹Department of Psychology, State University of Humanities and Social Studies (SUHSS). Zelenaya str., 30, Kolomna-140410, Russia

²Avalon Business Systems, Inc. 18-11 Radburn Road, Fair Lawn, NJ 07410, USA

*Corresponding author: Eugen Tarnow, Avalon Business Systems, Inc. 18-11 Radburn Road, Fair Lawn, NJ 07410, USA, Phone: +16462290787, E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

The working memory capacity (WMC) of 480 Russian teacher college students as well as 19 law students was measured using the Tarnow Unchunkable Test (TUT), which measures the free recall of unrelated double-digit integers. The academic fields of the students were found to account for about 5% (9%) of the variance in the average WMC for the 3-item (4-item) test. WMC increased in the order vocational, K-5, chemistry, mathematics, philology, psychology, history, law, computer science, physics and sports. The future teaching level (kindergarten, grades 1-5, grades 6-12 and vocational) accounted for 2.2% (5.5%) of the variance in the 3-item (4-item) test. We apply the TUT to the university as a whole and find that the university tends to encourage applications from high WMC fields.

Keywords: Working Memory Capacity, Working Memory Test