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Foreword
It is hard to believe, but it has been almost a quarter century since we started to work on our edited volume (Miyake & Shah, 1999a), Models of Working Memory: Mechanisms of Active Maintenance and Executive Control (MWM hereafter). Around that time, working memory research had become quite popular, leading to the proliferation of distinct theoretical models. Our goal was to provide a forum for clarifying points of agreement and disagreement among these models and promote their theoretical synthesis by asking a common set of important theoretical questions.
We are truly honoured that the editors of this new volume, Working Memory: State of the Science (WMSS hereafter), adopted the same common-question approach in editing this major update of the theoretical scene, more than 20 years after the publication of the MWM volume. In fact, we find it amazing that working memory is most likely the only research topic in cognitive psychology (and even in the entire field of psychological science) that comes with three edited volumes implementing this commonquestion approach, with the third one being the Variation in Working Memory volume with a focus on individual differences (Conway, Jarrold, Kane, Miyake, & Towse, 2007).
When the planning for the 1999 MWM volume began, we were only a brand-new assistant professor (Miyake) and a postdoctoral research associate (Shah), but we felt that our aforementioned goal was timely and important enough to be worth our time and effort. So we organized and hosted a 4-day workshop in Colorado in 1997 (with a lot of help from our colleagues) and did our best to produce a highly integrative volume that met our initial goal and the field’s need. Although we are really happy that we successfully implemented this common-question approach, what we were most proud of about our MWM volume was the fact that we were able to offer two substantial synthesis chapters that we think provided thoughtful reflections on the theoretical state of the field circa 1999, inspired by the contributors’ answers to our common questions (Kintsch, Healy, Hegarty, Pennington, & Salthouse, 1999; Miyake & Shah, 1999b).
In writing this foreword, in addition to the chapters in this WMSS volume, we also reread the two aforementioned synthesis chapters from the MWM volume (along with the answers to our common questions provided by the contributors) to gain some insights into how working memory research and its theoretical landscape have changed since 1999. When we wrote our own synthesis chapter in MWM (Miyake & Shah, 1999b), we found it really useful and insightful to read Norman’s (1970) edited volume on memory, entitled Models of Human Memory, and reflect on the field’s progress since.
As we highlighted in the MWM book, we were impressed with the transformation of our conceptualization and understanding of working memory from 1970 to 1999. Most of the models described in that 1970 volume conceptualized short-term memory as a separate passive storage buffer for the sake of memorization, and, with the publication
of Baddeley and Hitch’s (1974) seminal working memory chapter, the conception of working memory reflected in the models represented in the 1999 MWM volume seemed radically different from those represented in the 1970 volume. Moreover, a surge of interest in examining individual differences in working memory capacity in North America in the 1980s and 1990s, inspired by the development of complex span tasks (e.g. Daneman & Carpenter, 1980; Turner & Engle, 1989), has led the field to fully embrace the critical relevance of working memory in complex cognitive activities, such as reading comprehension and reasoning. We are glad that this WMSS volume provides a great new opportunity for working memory researchers to reflect on not only the current state of the field but also the progress the field has made in the last 20 years or so (1999–2021).
Unfortunately, space limitations do not allow us to fully flesh out our own thoughts on the theoretical development in the field (e.g. what changed, what has not, where to go from here). However, we were really impressed with various new theoretical ideas and empirical findings outlined in the individual chapters. At the most global level, major theoretical progress (and even innovation) made since 1999 in the specification of key working memory processes and mechanisms was quite evident when we read the chapters in this volume (e.g. the process of updating, re-examining of ways in which items are refreshed and maintained, the nature of working memory limits, and individual differences in working memory capacity). And such theoretical advances are supported by impressive arrays of empirical evidence (e.g. experimental, individual differences, cognitive neuroscience, and computational modelling), derived from more sophisticated research and data-analytic methodology than was the case back in 1999.
At a more specific level, what struck us as the most exciting new trend in the field, clearly reflected in the current volume throughout, concerns some positive changes in the way we do science, something we had hoped to see when we edited the MWM volume. In our 1999 synthesis chapter (Miyake & Shah, 1999b), we suggested that one important future research direction was more competitive argumentation and further theoretical synthesis. Specifically, we argued that ‘it is time to move forward and start rigorously testing competing, mutually incompatible claims through competitive argumentation as well as actively synthesizing mutually compatible ideas within a coherent framework’ (pp. 472–473). The current volume (as well as recent publications cited in the chapters) suggests that the field of working memory research has been moving in that direction.
Indeed, competitive argumentation is at the forefront of the WMSS volume, with a new common question dedicated to asking authors to discuss evidence that is inconsistent with their theoretical framework (Question 7). Several of the chapters are admirably direct in their responses to this question. It is also reflected in the ‘adversarial collaboration’ approach taken by the editors of this volume and their colleagues and discussed in several of the chapters here (see also Cowan et al., 2020; Doherty et al., 2019).
Attempts for theoretical and empirical synthesis are also featured prominently in different parts of the WMSS volume. Most noticeably, the question requiring authors to define working memory (Question 1) was inspired by Cowan’s (2017) attempts to
crystallize different conceptions of working memory and his observations about the importance of clear shared definitions to support synthesis. Similarly, meta-analytic synthesis mentioned in some of the chapters (e.g. as applied to the working memory training literature) is another important recent development that has contributed to increased efforts for synthesis. Moreover, recent attempts across multiple laboratories to delineate a set of ‘benchmark’ working memory phenomena that must be explained by any model (see, for example, Oberauer et al., 2018) are also important in terms of not only forging consensus but also encouraging further competitive argumentation and model comparison.
Despite these (and various other) highly visible and impressive advances in working memory research in the last 22 years, however, we were also struck by the fact that many of the theoretical ideas and questions discussed in the MWM volume (especially in the last two synthesis chapters) are still quite relevant, even today. In light of what we considered radical changes in theoretical conceptualizations of temporary memory between 1970 and 1999, we were perhaps envisioning equally radical changes in theoretical developments between 1999 and 2021 (e.g. in the 1999 volume, we even briefly speculated about the possibility that an umbrella term like working memory might be no longer necessary!). Instead, after reading the chapters of the current WMSS volume, we thought that our 1999 volume was not entirely obsolete and still offers some insights relevant to the current working memory models, even though major updates to the volume (of the sort offered by the current WMSS volume) are clearly needed.
For example, in our synthesis chapter in the MWM volume, we identified and presented six common themes that we thought ran across all ten models covered in the MWM volume:
1. Working memory is not a structurally separate box or place in the mind or brain.
2. Working memory’s maintenance function is in the service of complex cognition.
3. Executive control is integral to working memory functions.
4. Capacity limits reflect multiple factors and may even be an emergent property of the cognitive system.
5. Completely unitary, domain-general view of working memory does not hold.
6. Long-term knowledge plays an integral role in working memory performance.
Even though some of these themes from the 1999 volume may need some tweaks and updates (especially Theme 5), they are still generally applicable to the models included in the WMSS volume. In fact, it might be an interesting and even inspirational exercise for readers to try to identify such common themes that cut across all the models covered in the WMSS volume and examine how different those new themes are from those six themes listed that we identified back in 1999.
We believe that it is important to have an up-to-date, state-of-the-art knowledge of the current research and theoretical ideas and, for that purpose, this WMSS volume will serve as a terrific tool. So, any serious researchers and students interested in studying working memory should read this volume.
At the same time, we invite readers to also take a close look at our 1999 MWM volume (perhaps a second look for some readers) and engage in some historical reflections, asking questions such as: what changed in our theoretical thinking over the last 20 years or so? Are there any general changes in the way working memory is defined and conceptualized between 1999 and 2021 (i.e. compare the answers provided to Question 1 in the two volumes)? Which unresolved issues have been compellingly resolved since 1999, and what unresolved issues still remain unresolved despite their importance (the decay versus interference debate covered in detail in the MWM volume, for example, is still highly relevant in this WMSS volume, and we are not sure whether we are any closer to the resolution of this debate now)? What are the most important future directions of research and theoretical development?
Typically, readers of an edited book take a look at only some of the chapters and do not reflect much on the book as a whole, let alone on the historical progress of the field. Edited volumes such as MWM and WMSS, in contrast, require (and deserve) a much greater commitment from readers. We hope that readers will use this WMSS volume as a starting point to engage in such active reflections about the past, present, and future of working memory research and theories and thereby help continue to move the field forward.
Akira Miyake, University of Colorado Boulder, USA Priti Shah, University of Michigan, USA
References
Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. J. (1974). Working memory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 8, pp. 47–89). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Conway, A. R. A., Jarrold, C., Kane, M. J., Miyake, A., & Towse, J. N. (Eds.). (2007). Variation in working memory. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Cowan, N. (2017). The many faces of working memory and short-term storage. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24, 1158–1170.
Cowan, N., Belletier, C., Doherty, J. M., Jaroslawska, A. J., Rhodes, S., Forsberg, A., . . . & Logie, R. H. (2020). How do scientific views change? Notes from an extended adversarial collaboration. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15, 1011–1025.
Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Memory, 19, 450–466.
Doherty, J. M., Belletier, C., Rhodes, S., Jaroslawska, A., Barrouillet, P., Camos, V., . . . & Logie, R. H. (2019). Dual-task costs in working memory: An adversarial collaboration. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45, 1529–1551.
Kintsch, W., Healy, A. F., Hegarty, M., Pennington, B. F., & Salthouse, T. A. (1999). Models of working memory: Eight questions and some general issues. In A. Miyake & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 412–441). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Miyake, A., & Shah, P. (Eds.) (1999a). Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Miyake, A., & Shah, P. (1999b). Toward unified theories of working memory: Emerging general consensus, unresolved theoretical issues, and future research directions. In A. Miyake & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 442–481). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Foreword
Norman, A. D. (Ed.). (1970). Models of human memory. New York, NY: Academic Press.
Oberauer, K., Lewandowsky, S., Awh, E., Brown, G. D. A., Conway, A., Cowan, . . . Ward, G. (2018). Benchmarks for models of short-term and working memory. Psychological Bulletin, 144, 885–958. Smith, E. E., & Jonides, J. (1997). Working memory: A view from neuroimaging. Cognitive Psychology, 33, 5–42.
Turner, M. L., & Engle, R. W. (1989). Is working memory capacity task dependent? Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 127–154.
Acknowledgements
The editors acknowledge support for their work on this book from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) within the project ‘Working memory across the adult lifespan: An adversarial collaboration’ (WoMAAC) ES/N010728/1 (for more details see https://womaac.psy.ed.ac.uk). Nelson Cowan acknowledges support for his research from National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant R01 HD021338. The editors would like to thank Martin Baum at Oxford University Press for support, encouragement, and patience during the gestation of this volume.
Contributors xv
1. The State of the Science of Working Memory: An Introduction 1
Robert H. Logie, Valérie Camos, and Nelson Cowan
2. A Multicomponent Model of Working Memory 10
Alan Baddeley, Graham Hitch, and Richard Allen
3. An Embedded-Processes Approach to Working Memory: How Is It Distinct From Other Approaches, and to What Ends? 44
Nelson Cowan, Candice C. Morey, and Moshe Naveh-Benjamin
4. The Time-Based Resource-Sharing Model of Working Memory 85
Pierre Barrouillet and Valérie Camos
5. Towards a Theory of Working Memory: From Metaphors to Mechanisms 116
Klaus Oberauer
6. Multicomponent Working Memory System with Distributed Executive Control 150
André Vandierendonck
7. Individual Differences in Attention Control: Implications for the Relationship Between Working Memory Capacity and Fluid Intelligence 175
Cody A. Mashburn, Jason S. Tsukahara, and Randall W. Engle
8. Working Memory and Expertise: An Ecological Perspective 212
David Z. Hambrick, Alexander P. Burgoyne, and Duarte Araujo
9. Domain-Specific Working Memory: Perspectives from Cognitive Neuropsychology 235
Randi C. Martin, Brenda Rapp, and Jeremy Purcell
10. Remembering Over the Short and Long Term: Empirical Continuities and Theoretical Implications 282
Patricia A. Reuter-Lorenz and Alexandru D. Iordan
11. Manifold Visual Working Memory 311
Nicole Hakim, Edward Awh, and Edward K. Vogel
12. Cognitive Neuroscience of Visual Working Memory 333
Bradley R. Postle
13. A Dynamic Field Theory of Visual Working Memory
Sobanawartiny Wijeakumar and John Spencer
14. Integrating Theories of Working Memory
Robert H. Logie, Clément Belletier, and Jason M. Doherty Index
Contributors
Richard Allen, PhD
Associate Professor School of Psychology University of Leeds Leeds, UK
Duarte Araujo, PhD Associate Professor of Sport and Health Faculty of Human Kinetics University of Lisbon Cruz Quebrada, Lisbon, Portugal
Edward Awh, PhD Professor Department of Psychology University of Chicago Chicago, IL, USA
Alan Baddeley, CBE, FRS, FBA, FMedSci Professor Department of Psychology University of York York, UK
Pierre Barrouillet, PhD Full Professor Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences Université de Genève Geneva, Switzerland
Clément Belletier, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Psychology Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Clermont Auvergne Clermont-Ferrand, France
Alexander P. Burgoyne, PhD
Post-Doctoral Researcher School of Psychology
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Valérie Camos, PhD
Professor in Developmental Psychology Department of Psychology Université de Fribourg Fribourg, Switzerland
Nelson Cowan, PhD
Curators’ Distinguished Professor Department of Psychological Sciences University of Missouri Columbia, Missouri, USA
Jason M. Doherty, MA, MScR, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Assistant Department of Psychology University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, UK
Randall W. Engle, PhD Professor
Department of Psychology
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA, USA
Nicole Hakim
PhD Student Department of Psychology University of Chicago Chicago, IL, USA
David Z. Hambrick, PhD Professor Department of Psychology Michigan State University East Lansing, MI, USA
Graham Hitch, MA, MSc, PhD Emeritus Professor Department of Psychology University of York York, UK
Alexandru D. Iordan, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Department of Psychology University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Robert H. Logie, PhD
Professor of Human Cognitive Neuroscience Department of Psychology University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Randi C. Martin, PhD
Elma Schneider Professor Department of Psychological Sciences Rice University Houston, TX, USA
Cody A. Mashburn, BS Graduate Student School of Psychology
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA, USA
Candice C. Morey, PhD Senior Lecturer School of Psychology Cardiff University Cardiff, Wales, UK
Moshe Naveh-Benjamin, PhD Professor of Psychology Department of Psychological Sciences University of Missouri Columbia, Missouri, USA
Klaus Oberauer, Dr Professor Department of Psychology University of Zurich Zürich, Switzerland
Bradley R. Postle, PhD Professor Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI, USA
Jeremy Purcell, PhD Research Scientist Maryland Neuroimaging Center University of Maryland College Park, MD, USA
Brenda Rapp, PhD Professor Department of Cognitive Science Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD, USA
Patricia A. Reuter-Lorenz, PhD Department Chair, Michael I. Posner Collegiate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Department of Psychology University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI, USA
John Spencer, PhD Professor School of Psychology University of East Anglia Norwich, UK
Jason S. Tsukahara, MA Graduate Student School of Psychology
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA, USA
André Vandierendonck, PhD Emeritus Professor Department of Experimental Psychology Ghent University Ghent, Belgium
Edward K. Vogel, PhD Professor Department of Psychology University of Chicago Chicago, IL, USA
Sobanawartiny Wijeakumar, Dr Assistant Professor School of Psychology University of Nottingham Nottingham, UK
1
The State of the Science of Working Memory
An Introduction
Robert H. Logie, Valérie Camos, and Nelson Cowan
Why This Book and Why Now?
Working memory (WM) refers to our ability to keep a small amount of information readily available for our current activities, and to support decisions, guide actions, make statements, and keep track of conversations, to navigate and support creative thinking and problem-solving, to remember to do things, and to update what is going on around us throughout the day. In other words, it is an ability that we use every waking moment of our lives. It is also one of the most popular research topics in psychological sciences and cognitive neuroscience, and is now widely used in everyday conversation throughout society. A search for the term on Google Scholar resulted in over two million hits. The general concept was identified by the philosopher John Locke (1690) who referred to ‘contemplation’ in contrast with the ‘storehouse of ideas’, and a number of related concepts were proposed over the following three centuries (for historical reviews, see Logie, 1996; Logie & Cowan, 2015). The use of the term WM to refer to this human mental ability was first mentioned briefly by Miller, Galanter, and Pribram (1960), but major theoretical and empirical developments are widely considered to have been stimulated by Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch (1974), and subsequent work by Baddeley and colleagues (e.g. Baddeley, 1986; see chapter by Baddeley, Hitch, & Allen, 2021).
Over the following nearly five decades since that 1974 chapter, a large volume of research has been generated, leading to the development of multiple theoretical frameworks regarding how WM works, what are its capacity limitations, how it is organized, how its functions are implemented in brain structure and function, and how it is affected by damage to the brain. Although there are large numbers of journal articles and books on aspects of WM, for the last 20 years the ‘go to’ definitive collection of theoretical and empirical reviews has been a book published in 1999 and edited by Akira Miyake and Priti Shah. That book was remarkable in bringing together the ideas of the most high-profile WM researchers at the time, reflecting a diversity of theoretical perspectives, and the book and the chapters within it are still very widely cited.
A lot has happened in research on this topic in the last 20 years, with major theoretical and empirical developments, and it is an increasingly popular topic both with researchers and policymakers, as well as with a range of other stakeholders and the general
Robert H. Logie, Valérie Camos, and Nelson Cowan, The State of the Science of Working Memory In: Working Memory
State of the Science of Working Memory: An Introduction public. With these developments has come a scientific diaspora, with multiple different definitions (reviewed in Cowan, 2017), and competing theoretical frameworks fuelled by new behavioural, cognitive studies of healthy and brain-damaged individuals across the lifespan, and by dramatic developments in neuroimaging techniques that were nascent and used by very few research groups at the time of Miyake and Shah’s book. So, it seems particularly timely for this new book Working Memory: State of the Science that brings together many of the most productive and well-known WM researchers in Europe and the United States to highlight current empirical and theoretical developments as well as pointing to what has changed since Miyake and Shah’s (1999) book.
One reason for the major success of the Miyake and Shah volume was that the chapter authors were each asked to answer a common set of questions about their own theoretical perspective. This unique feature gave the book a much more integrated character than most edited texts at the time, and it remains extremely rare in edited texts today. Our new book follows this excellent idea by asking the authors of each chapter to address questions that remain unresolved as well as new questions that have arisen over the last two decades. However, unlike the previous book, each author also has been asked to state how they deal with research findings that are not consistent with their own theoretical assumptions. This highlights contemporary debates, but also encourages authors to step out of their own paradigms and findings and to consider new and contrasting theoretical arguments rather than focusing only on their own work and work of their like-minded colleagues.
The encouragement for chapter authors to consider contrary evidence has arisen from a long-term ‘cooperative adversarial collaboration’ within a common research programme between the three editors (Logie, Camos, and Cowan), four of their chapter co-authors (Barrouillet, Naveh-Benjamin, Belletier, and Doherty), and other colleagues (see Cowan et al., 2020) whose theoretical perspectives differ, as will be evident from their chapters. Details of that adversarial collaboration and of resulting publications and other outputs are available at http://www.womaac.psy.ed.ac.uk, and some of the results of the empirical work are summarized in the chapter by Logie, Belletier, and Doherty (2021). Our book also has been guided by the aim of recruiting, as authors of the other chapters, leading representatives of approaches to WM that differ widely in their theoretical approaches, research methods, and domains of application.
The Designated Questions for All Authors
The designated questions for authors addressed seven core issues, plus up to five optional issues depending on the relevance for their research. At the start of each chapter, authors were asked to provide a table with a summary of their responses to each question. The intention is that this general structure and the summary table for each chapter will facilitate comparisons of the differences in theoretical assumptions across authors. The summary table also provides a theoretical context for each chapter before reading the detailed text.
The instructions to authors and the designated questions are laid out in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1 The instructions and designated questions given to authors
When writing your chapter, please address the following seven questions plus any of the optional questions that are relevant for your research. Add a table at the start of your chapter that summarizes very briefly your answer to each question.
1. Definition of working memory (WM)
Cowan (2017) has delineated a range of different definitions of WM, although there may be other definitions assumed by researchers in the field. What is the definition of WM within your own theoretical framework?
2. Describe and explain the methods you use, and their strengths and limitations
What research methods do you use most frequently in your research, and are there any methods that most uniquely characterize your research? Briefly highlight what you see as the major advantages and limitations of these methods compared with alternatives. What new developments in methods might help enhance empirical and theoretical advances in WM research?
3. Unitary versus non-unitary nature of WM
Does your theoretical framework assume that WM is essentially activated long-term episodic and semantic memory, or do you view WM as a separate system that interacts with long-term memory (LTM)? Is WM a highly flexible domain-general system that supports both temporary maintenance and ongoing processing, or a collection of domain-specific systems that cooperate in supporting task performance? What evidence supports your views? Is there evidence that is inconsistent with your views, and how does your theoretical framework deal with contrary findings?
4. The role of attention and control
A common assumption across cognitive psychology is that there is centralized control of mental activity, and of which aspects of the environment are perceived and encoded. These aspects of cognition often are referred to as controlled attention, or ‘top-down control’ but this raises questions about the nature of the control system. How does your theoretical framework account for ‘top-down control’ of mental activity? What is doing the controlling, and how do you address the implicit assumption of a homunculus acting as an executive controller? What, if any, theoretical differences are there between selective attention through the senses to stimuli in the environment and selective attention to mental events?
5. Storage, maintenance, and loss of information in WM
How is information encoded in WM, and how is the information retained? Is there passive storage and/or active maintenance to prevent loss, and what are the mechanisms for loss? How are these processes affected by strategies?
6. The role of LTM in WM storage and processing
How do episodic, semantic (declarative and procedural) aspects of LTM contribute to WM capacity and function, and how does WM contribute to LTM? What evidence and theoretical considerations support your theoretical views about the relationship between WM and LTM? What is the role of WM in learning, and how does learning affect WM capacity and function? What is the role of domain-specific expertise in WM? How does training on WM tasks impact WM function, and how does your theoretical framework account for the presence or absence of an impact of WM training?
7. Is there evidence that is not consistent with your theoretical framework, and how does your framework address that inconsistency?
This can be addressed as a separate question, or incorporated in your answers to each of the other questions.
Additional optional questions—please also try to consider one or more of the following questions that are relevant for your research. They may be considered in the context of the previous core questions, or in addition.
A. Early life development
What are the sources and kinds of change that occur in WM during development from early life to early adulthood that are incorporated in your theoretical framework? How does your framework account for these changes, and what are the most important sources of evidence that are consistent with, and those that present a challenge to your framework?
B. Adult ageing
What are the sources and kinds of change that occur in WM across the adult lifespan that are incorporated in your theoretical framework? How does your framework account for these changes, and what are the most important sources of evidence that are consistent with, and those that present a challenge to your framework?
C. Individual differences and limits in WM capacity
What limits WM capacity and what are the factors that underlie differences in that capacity between individuals? Are gender differences important for WM function and capacity?
D. Neural correlates
How does your theoretical framework relate to findings from brain imaging and brain stimulating studies of WM (e.g. functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation, and near-infrared spectroscopy)?
E. Neuropsychology
How does your theoretical framework relate to findings from cognitive/behavioural studies of individuals with focal brain lesions or with neurodegenerative diseases that impair some or all WM function?
F. WM applications
Does your theoretical framework for WM have any implications for everyday cognition, e.g. in accounting for learning, training, mental arithmetic, language learning, prospective remembering, autobiographical remembering, problem solving, decision-making, multitasking, holding conversations, or design of human–digital interaction?
A Summary of the Chapters
The chapters are intended to represent most, if not all of the current most prominent theoretical perspectives and empirical research on WM. The first group of five chapters reflects different theoretical frameworks and approaches. Chapter 2 is by the authors who, in their seminal publication in 1974 asked the question ‘What is shortterm memory for?’. This led Baddeley (1986) to the idea of multicomponent WM as a dynamic mental workspace with domain-specific temporary memory capacities respectively for verbal (the phonological loop) and for visuospatial (the visuospatial sketchpad) material together with a controlling central executive. Baddeley and Hitch are joined in this chapter by Allen, discussing how their view of the multicomponent model of WM has developed over the last 46 years. They point to key findings from studies of healthy adults and from individuals who show very specific deficits linked with brain damage that have resulted in gradual expansion and greater sophistication in the understanding of the phonological loop, and of executive function, with the addition of an amodal episodic temporary buffer. They emphasize the approach to theory development based on its utility to account for empirical findings and to be applied to a wide range of questions outside the cognitive laboratory. In Chapter 3, Cowan, Morey, and Naveh-Benjamin provide a detailed account of empirical work that has driven the development of the embedded processes framework, originally
proposed by Cowan (1988). This views WM as the currently activated area of longterm memory (LTM) coupled with a limited capacity focus of attention, and the control of attention is key to WM capacity and function. In Chapter 4, Barrouillet and Camos describe evidence for, and the current instantiation of the time-based resource sharing framework, the core of which is the time for which attention is focused on a specific task. So, for example, if there is a requirement to remember some material while having to deal with some other cognitively demanding task, memory performance will be determined by how long attention is directed to refreshing and hence maintaining the to-be-remembered material before switching attention to deal with the contrasting cognitive demand. In the latter case, the contents of memory degrade until attention switches back to memory maintenance. In the fifth chapter, Oberauer argues that evaluation of a theory requires that it makes strong predictions that can be tested empirically and with the use of computational modelling. He acknowledges that the implementation of a computational model typically involves focusing on very specific empirical phenomena and research questions, and describes three such specific models. He suggests a roadmap for developing a more general model as predictions are supported or falsified by the data, and that any such general model should incorporate specific requirements for a WM to function effectively. In the sixth chapter of this set, Vandierendonck describes a general computational model of WM that is inspired by the Baddeley et al. multicomponent view comprising both domain-general and domain-specific components. Importantly, he demonstrates how executive control can be distributed across the multiple components without the need for a central executive controller, a theme that is also explored in Chapter 13 by Wijeakumar and Spencer, and in Chapter 14 by Logie, Belletier, and Doherty.
The next three chapters explore individual differences in WM capacity and how it is used. Individual differences can include age differences, variation within an age group in capabilities and experiences, and psychopathologies as well as neuropathologies. They are inherent in several of the common questions, so many of the chapters address them in one way or another. However, they are the main focus for Chapters 7– 9. In Chapter 7, Mashburn, Tsukahara, and Engle discuss the use of both experimental and correlational studies focused on how individuals differ in their overall WM capacity, which is viewed as the control of executive attention to inhibit irrelevant information and focus on current task goals. They identify the latent factor of attention control using multiple different measures of WM capacity across large groups of individuals with diverse mental ability levels. Like Cowan et al. in Chapter 3, Reuter- Lorenz and Iordan in Chapter 10, and Postle in Chapter 12, Mashburn et al. view temporary memory as currently activated aspects of LTM. Chapter 8 by Hambrick, Burgoyne, and Araujo argues that much of WM research has been short- sighted in exploring WM primarily from the perspective of the individual or group and within controlled laboratory studies. This approach neglects how WM is used outside of the laboratory and how the environment contributes to WM function. For example, they show how
the capacity of an individual’s WM can be substantially supplemented by external cues in cognitively demanding environments such as a busy restaurant kitchen, or when landing an aeroplane. This is followed in Chapter 9 by Martin, Rapp, and Purcell who provide an extensive and detailed review of how studies of individuals and groups with brain damage have led to significant insights into the cognitive impairments from which these individuals suffer, and to insights into the relationship between brain function and WM function. In focusing on domainspecific orthographic, phonological, semantic, and visuospatial characteristics of verbal WM, as in the chapters by Baddeley et al., by Vandierendonck, and by Logie et al., they provide evidence for multiple WM functions that work together in the healthy brain and that can each be selectively impaired by specific brain damage. Chapters 10, 11, 12, and 13 explore neural correlates of WM functions, starting in Chapter 10 with Reuter- Lorenz and Iordan, who demonstrate that semantically based false memories are observed both in LTM and WM experimental paradigms. They then review brain imaging studies that point to WM and LTM cognitive constructs being linked with different activation states of the same neural networks, consistent with Cowan et al.’s view that WM comprises activated LTM. The relationship between neural activation and the cognitive understanding specifically of visual WM is discussed in Chapter 11 by Hakim, Awh, and Vogel from the perspective of evidence from electroencephalography studies that track the time course of electrical signals during WM task performance. They concur with Cowan et al. and Reuter- Lorenz and Iordan, that WM is reflected in active neural firing of networks that store information long term, but diverge from those views by demonstrating that different mechanisms support representation of the visual characteristics of individual items separately from the prioritization of spatial locations. In Chapter 12, Postle also argues that visual WM function arises from activation states of networks in the brain. However, he goes further in suggesting that the functions attributed to WM are emergent properties of systems that support the processing of sensory inputs, the representations from those inputs, the control of attention, and the representation and control of action rather than a separate memory system. The argument is supported by studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography, and computational modelling of recurrent neural networks. In Chapter 13, Wijeakumar and Spencer consider the neural correlates of visual WM across the lifespan within dynamic field theory. This explores the use of behavioural measures and computational modelling of WM representations comprising strong interactions between sustained self- excitation and lateral inhibition within a collection of active neural networks, each serving a specific function, and referred to as dynamic fields. Like Postle, there is a strong argument made for visual WM as a property of sensorimotor systems, but as in Vandierendonck’s computational model and consistent with the Logie et al.’s arguments, there is no central control of attention, with executive control arising from the interaction between several dynamic fields.
In the final chapter, Chapter 14, Logie, Belletier, and Doherty argue that differences between the competing theoretical views of WM might be more apparent than real, and differences arise from the research questions being addressed and the level of explanation that is appropriate for those questions. They argue that in the healthy brain, there are multiple domain-specific functions that dynamically and seamlessly interact, giving the impression of a single general capacity. Moreover, these domain-specific systems can be used in different combinations for any given cognitive task, depending on the strategy that a participant adopts to support task performance. The domain-specific systems then only become apparent when one or more system is impaired following brain damage as also described in the chapters by Baddeley et al., Martin et al., and Logie et al. Moreover, the different cognitive functions could be distinguished at the neural level by the mechanisms for activation and inhibition, by synaptic growth, or by the way in which different brain networks interact. There is no need to assume that a domain-specific cognitive function would necessarily map on to a specific brain structure. By considering the level of explanation sought, there is considerable potential for more theory integration than for increasing theoretical diversity.
Associated Electronic Material
This book has been published electronically as well as in print. Many of the chapter authors have, and will, make associated electronic material available in the form of demonstrations, datasets, computational and statistical models, and links to online experiments and supplementary discussions. Links to most of the electronic material will be made available at http://womaac.psy.ed.ac.uk, and these links will continue to be updated after publication of the book. Some of the electronic material will be uploaded to the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/).
Some authors will make electronic resources available via their own web pages. Updates and additions to these electronic resources will continue to be made available after the book has been published. We hope that all of these additional electronic features will allow readers to become engaged with WM research well beyond their reading of the book chapters. This broader perspective should make the book distinctive, and we hope this will attract WM researchers who are experienced or new to the area, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students and also provide background activities for advanced undergraduates on cognitive psychology courses.
References
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