DIFFERENCES IN SHORT-TERM STORAGE, ATTENTION, AND EXECUTIVE CONTROL ACROSS AGE GROUPS AND LANGUAGE-BASED ACADEMIC FIELDS

Abstract

This study examined differences in short-term storage, attention, and executive control across age groups and academic fields in a Pakistani sample. A total of 122 participants, including students and working professionals from English and Urdu literature fields, completed the Working Memory Questionnaire (Vallat-Azouvi et al., 2012), yielding a response rate of 69.7%. The mean age of participants was 41.93 years (SD = 12.27). Higher scores on the questionnaire indicate greater perceived difficulty in cognitive functioning. Correlational analysis revealed significant positive relationships among short-term storage, attention, and executive control. Independent-samples t-tests indicated that young adults demonstrated better short-term storage, attention, and executive control than older adults, whereas participants from English literature exhibited superior performance across all domains compared to their Urdu literature counterparts. These findings highlight age- and language-related differences in cognitive functioning and underscore the importance of culturally contextualized assessments for educational and professional populations.