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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Connected Health
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1499737

Evaluating Working Memory in Young Individuals with Normal Hearing through Tele-Assessment and Traditional Assessment: A Comparative Study

Provisionally accepted
KV Nisha KV Nisha 1*Devi N Devi N 1Vandana B Vandana B 1Rashmi E Rashmi E 1Shraddha Shende Shraddha Shende 2Raksha Anand Mudar Raksha Anand Mudar 2
  • 1 All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH), Mysore, India
  • 2 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Aim: This pilot study examined the feasibility of tele-assessment of working memory (WM) over conventional face-to-face assessment. Methods: 15 young adults, native speakers of Kannada, with normal hearing, aged between 18-30 years completed three WM tests in Indian English: forward digit span, backward digit span, and n-back task through tele-assessment and in-person/face-to-face assessment. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) task load index, which assesses subjective workload, was used to determine the difficulties across the two modes of assessment. Results: Paired comparison t-tests showed no significant differences in performance on forward digit span (p=0.29), backward digit span (p=0.71), and n-back (p=0.66) across the two assessment conditions. Furthermore, NASA task load index did not differ across the two assessment conditions for forward digit span (p=0.29), backward digit span (p=0.71), and n-back (p=0.66). Wilcoxon signed rank showed that backward digit span was the most difficult among working memory tasks in both modes of assessment. The findings of our pilot study suggest that both modes can be used successfully to assess working memory, and the tele-assessments yield similar results to face-to-face WM assessment in young, normal hearing adults. These results support the feasibility of determining WM tests in tele-mode, which has implications for use in clinical populations.

    Keywords: tele-assessment, Cognition, working memory, and young adults, face-to-face, Workload

    Received: 23 Sep 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Nisha, N, B, E, Shende and Mudar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: KV Nisha, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH), Mysore, India

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.