Interference control, working memory capacity, and cognitive abilities: A latent variable analysis

The present study examined whether various indices of interference control were related to one another and to other cognitive abilities. It was found that the interference control measures were weakly correlated and could form a single factor that was related to overall memory performance on the tasks as well as to measures of working memory capacity and fluid and crystallized intelligence. Furthermore, it was found that both working memory capacity and memory performance mediated the relation between interference control and intelligence and both accounted for variance in intelligence over and above that accounted for by interference control. These results suggest that interference control is an important cognitive construct that is related to other cognitive abilities. These results have implications for a number of areas that rely on the notion of interference control as an explanatory construct.