Working Memory (OSPAN)

The automated operation span (OSPAN; Unsworth et al., 2005) is a computer-based test to assess working memory capacity. Participants are shown simple mathematical equations in alternation with letters. Their task is to decide if the equations are correct while remembering the letters in the order they were presented. After three to six trials, an array of 12 letters is shown and participants are instructed to click on the previously shown letters. For our analysis, we used the absolute score and a “partial load”. The absolute score refers to the sum of all correctly recalled letters, whereas the partial load is calculated by summing up only the letters of the trials that were recalled in the correct order. One dataset was lost due to hardware malfunction. This resulted in 38 datasets in the sleep condition and 39 datasets in the wake condition.