The relationship between performance in working memory (WM) span tasks, scholastic skills and fluid intelligence was investigated to determine how WM span is related to higher order cognition. The predictive utility of two WM span tasks differing in the demand of the processing task was studied with controlled presentation times and a broad set of academic criterion tasks. Sixty‐eight adolescents (mean age 16 years) completed two WM span tasks, Raven's Progressive Matrices and several scholastic performance measures. The results showed that the more demanding WM span task predicted fluid intelligence, but did not contribute uniquely in explaining scholastic performance. In contrast, the less demanding WM task predicted scholastic performance. The results suggest that the strength of the relation between WM performance and higher order cognition varies in conjunction with both the demand of the WM span task and the type of higher order cognition measure.Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.