Influence of Socioeconomic Status on Attention and Working Memory

Abstract

Background: Working memory pertains to the cognitive mechanism responsible for briefly retaining and manipulating necessary information for the execution of diverse cognitive activities. Socioeconomic status (SES) refers to an individual's or family's position within a social hierarchy based on factors such as income, education, and occupation. Such factors affect working memory of an individual hence SES can have significant effect on working memory and attention of an individual. Aim: Aim of the study was to assess the influence of SES on the working memory and attention abilities Method: Total of forty five male participants were taken for the study within age range of 18-40 years, with 15 individuals included in each of the three groups categorized as upper middle class, lower middle class, and lower SES. Auditory digit span (forward and backward), operation span, reading span for working memory and Eriksen’s flanker test for attention was done. Results: The results revealed that there was a significant difference in forward span, backward span test scores of working memory and reaction time of Eriksen’s flanker test for the three SES groups. No such significant difference was seen for reading span and operation span test. Conclusion: Subjects of upper middle SES performed better than lower SES subjects. Hence, it can be concluded that working memory and attention is affected by the SES of an individual.