Table 1 Description of working memory task battery

Visuospatial WM task

Visuospatial sketchpad

In the Visuospatial WM task, participants were presented with a sequence of red and blue rectangles displayed at different angles for 500 ms. The aim is to memorize the angles of the red rectangles located on a particular side of the screen, which is indicated by an arrow. After a retention time of 900 ms, participants were shown a test screen that could correspond to the memory screen. If the test screen exactly matched the memory screen, participants were asked to press “1” on the keyboard; if they did not match, they were instructed to press “2”. On each trial, two or four red rectangles (stimuli) appeared continuously, accompanied by 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 distracting blue rectangles. Each participant went through nine cycles with a total of 72 trials

Sternberg WM task

Phonological loop

In the Sternberg task, participants were first presented with a mix of green and black letters and were asked to memorize only the black ones, ignoring the green ones. Each letter was displayed for 1000 ms. Following this, they were shown a series of red letters, each displayed for 3000 ms, and the participants had to respond within this time frame. Their task was to decide if a specific red letter matched any of the black letters they had memorized. They pressed “1” on the keyboard if it matched and “2” if it didn't. This task was conducted in four cycles, each with two parts. In the first part, participants memorized eight letters and then responded to 14 test letters (14-item condition), In the second part, they memorized a different set of eight letters and responded to 10 test letters (10-item condition), which is less cognitively demanding

Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST)

Central executive components and processing speed

In the DSST Test, participants needed to quickly match numbers to their corresponding symbols using a provided key. When symbols appeared on the screen, they had to identify the correct numbers accurately and swiftly. They had 180 s to create as many correct digit-symbol pairs as possible within this time

Flanker Task

Central executive: Inhibition

In the flanker task, participants had to determine the direction of the middle arrow in a row of arrows. They pressed “1” on the keyboard when the arrow pointed to the left and “2” when it pointed to the right. The task comprised 141 trials, each displayed for 1000 ms, and fell into one of three categories: congruent, neutral, or incongruent. The participates had to respond within a 1 min timeframe for each trial. In the congruent condition, the center arrow matched the direction of the surrounding arrows (e.g., <  <  <  < <). In the incongruent condition, the middle arrow pointed in the opposite direction of the surrounding arrows (e.g., <  <  >  < <), creating a conflict. In the neutral condition, the middle arrow was flanked by neutral symbols, providing a different challenge (e.g., )

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)

Central executive: Switching

In the WCST, participants are asked to categorize cards according to various criteria, such as color, number or shape of symbols. Over the course of 42 trials, each lasting 5000 ms, the participants sort the cards according to dynamically changing criteria. The categorization rule is changed after every 14 cards, so that the participants have to adapt their sorting strategy flexibly. After each sorting attempt, the participants receive feedback informing them of the correctness or incorrectness of their performance