Table 6.

Overview of WMDEC predictions in a dual-task situation with execution of tasks varying in difficulty and frequency during the maintenance period in a complex span setting.

PREDICTION	WHATa	WMDEC EXPLANATION
Study 3: Secondary task in maintenance interval
Task difficulty	Mdif < Measy	A more difficult task takes more time to complete than an easy task; as a consequence refreshment of to-be-remembered elements is blocked for a longer time
Number of tasks	Mhigh < Mlow	When more tasks have to be completed during the maintenance interval, less time is available for refreshment of to-be-remembered elements

^a In dual-task context, a secondary task is present during maintenance and/or retention intervals of a serial recall task, which is scored as the number of correctly recalled elements in the correct serial position (i.e., memory span, M). This measure is observed in a difficult (M_dif) or in an easy (M_easy) condition, with a high or a low number of intervening tasks (M_high and M_low).