A latent-variable study examined whether verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) capacity measures reflect a primarily domain-general construct by testing 236 participants in 3 span tests each of verbal WM, visuospatial WM, verbal short-term memory (STM), and visuospatial STM, as well as in tests of verbal and spatial reasoning and general fluid intelligence (Gf). Confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation models indicated that the WM tasks largely reflected a domain-general factor, whereas STM tasks, based on the same stimuli as the WM tasks, were much more domain specific. The WM construct was a strong predictor of Gf and a weaker predictor of domain-specific reasoning, and the reverse was true for the STM construct. The findings support a domain-general view of WM capacity, in which executive-attention processes drive the broad predictive utility of WM span measures, and domain-specific storage and rehearsal processes relate more strongly to domain-specific aspects of complex cognition. The generality versus specificity of cognitive abilities, mecha-nisms, and structures has triggered lively debate throughout psy-chology’s history, for example, it surrounds questions of general versus multiple intelligences (e.g., Guilford, 1967; Jensen, 1998;

Many theories have been proposed to explain difficulty with center embedded constructions, most attributing the problem to some kind of limited capacity short-term memory. However, these theories have developed for the most part independently of more traditional memory research, which has focused on uncovering general principles such as chunking and interference. This article attempts to gain some unification with this research by suggesting that an interesting range of core sentence processing phenomena can be explained as interference effects in a sharply limited syntactic working memory. These include difficult and acceptable embeddings, as well as certain limitations on ambiguity resolution, length effects in garden path structures, and the requirement for locality in syntactic structure. The theory takes the form of an architecture for parsing which can index no more than two constituents under the same syntactic relation. A limitation of two or three items shows up in a variety o...

In 5 experiments, the character of concurrent cognitive processing was manipulated during an event-based prospective memory task. High- and low-load conditions that differed only in the difficulty of the concurrent task were tested in each experiment. In Experiments 1 and 2, attention-demanding tasks from the literature on executive control produced decrements in prospective memory. In Experiment 3, attention was divided by different loads of articulatory suppression that did not ultimately lead to decrements in prospective memory. A high-load manipulation of a visuospatial task requiring performance monitoring resulted in worse prospective memory in Experiment 4, whereas in Experiment 5 a visuospatial task with little monitoring did not. Results are discussed in terms of executive functions, such as planning and monitoring, that appear to be critical to successful event-based prospective memory. Successfully completing an intended action in the future depends on a type of remembering that has been labeled prospective memory. Thus, successful prospective memory requires remembering to remember. As a cognitive con-struct, however, prospective memory is less monolithic than

A previous study (Baddeley et al., 1986) explored the hypothesis that patients suffering from dementia of the Alzheimer type (AD) are particularly impaired in the functioning of the central executive component of working memory. It showed that, when patients are required to perform 2 concurrent tasks simultaneously, the AD patients are particularly impaired, even when level of performance on the individual tasks is equated with that of age-matched controls. Although the results were clear, interpretation was still complicated by 2 issues: first, the question of comparability of performance on the separate tests between AD and control patients; secondly, the question of whether our results could be interpreted simply in terms of a limited general processing capacity being more taxed by more difficult dual tasks than by the individual tasks performed alone. The present study followed up the AD and control patients after 6 and 12 mths. We were able to allow for the problem of comparability of performance by using patients as their own control. Under these conditions, there is a very clear tendency for dual task performance to deteriorate while single task performance is maintained. A second experiment varied difficulty within a single task in which patients and controls were required to categorize words as belonging to 1, 2 or 4 semantic categories. There was a clear effect of number of categories on performance and a systematic decline in performance over time.

Models of short-term memory have to take into account that touch is not a tightly organised single modality. Touch, without vision or other external cues, depends on information from touch, movement and from body-centred (posture) cues. These inputs vary with the size and types of object, and with task demands. It is argued that the convergence and overlap of inputs from different sources is crucial to parsimonious organisation for memory and recall. «Modality-specific» input conditions thus form an integral part of the available information, which changes, and is changed by longer-term information. Three general principles apply: (i) Parsimony of coding modality-specific inputs for recognition and recall; (ii) links with output systems which can «rehearse» information; and (iii) longer-term familiarity with procedures and types of coding. The introduction and first section discuss these points in relation to models for hearing and vision. The third section cites findings on modality-specific tactual memory, and explains tactual memory spans in terms of paucity versus redundancy of reference information to organise inputs spatially. Movements are considered next as inputs and as spatially organised outputs that can provide haptic rehearsal. The final section argues that intersensory modality-specific processes and longer-term memory need to be included as interrelated systems in STM models in order to account for memory in touch. La memoria en el tacto. Los modelos de memoria a corto plazo deben tener en cuenta que el tacto no es una modalidad única estrechamente organizada. El tacto sin visión u otras claves externas, depende de la información obtenida a partir del tacto, del movimiento y de las claves (la postura) centradas en el cuerpo. Estos inputs varían con el tamaño y los tipos de objetos, y con las demandas de la tarea. La convergencia y el solapamiento de los inputs a partir de diferentes fuentes es crucial para la organización de la memoria y el recuerdo. Las condiciones del input «específicas de la modalidad forman una parte integral de la información disponible, que cambia, y es cambiada por la información a largo plazo. Tres principios generales pueden aplicarse: (i) La parsimonia de la codificación de los inputs específicos de la modalidad para el reconocimiento y el recuerdo; (ii) las uniones con los sistemas del output que pueden «repetir» la información; y (iii) mayor familiaridad con los procedimientos y los tipos de codificación. En la introducción y en la primera sección se discuten estos puntos en relación con los modelos de visión y audición. La tercera sección cita resultados sobre la memoria del tacto específica de la modalidad, y explica la amplitud de la memoria táctil en función de la pobreza versus la redundancia de información de referencia para organizar los inputs de manera espacial. Después se consideran los movimientos como inputs y outputs organizados espacialmente que pueden proporcionar repetición háptica. En la sección final se argumenta que los procesos intersensoriales específicos de la modalidad y la memoria a largo plazo necesitan ser incluidos como sistemas interrelacionados en los modelos de MCP para poder explicar la memoria en el tacto.

The aim of the paper was to further explore the complementarity of the working memory models postulated by Pascual-Leone and Baddeley. Five-, six-, eight-, and nine-year-old children were assessed on two working memory tasks that have frequently been used within the respective streams of research: the Mr. Peanut task and the Corsi blocks task. Results indicated a developmental increase in spatial short-term memory for both tasks. Concurrent spatial suppression reduced performance on the two tasks in all four age groups. By contrast, articulatory suppression interfered with recall only on the Mr. Peanut task, and in only the older children. The two models were shown to make their own specific contribution to the interpretation of the data, attesting to their complemen-tarity. Pascual-Leone’s theory offered a clear explanation of the results concerning the central aspects of working memory, that is, the stepwise age-related increase in perfor-mance, whereas Baddeley’s model provided a convincing account of the findings regard-ing the peripheral phonological and visuo-spatial components, that is, the effects of articulatory and spatial suppression. © 2000 Academic Press Key Words: short-term memory; spatial memory; information processing capacity; memory development; working memory models; rehearsal strategies; cognitive develop-ment. Working memory refers to a system for temporary storage and manipulation of information during the performance of a wide range of cognitive tasks, such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning. With regard to the development of working memory, two lines of research can be distinguished: the neo-Piagetian perspective (e.g., Case, 1985; Pascual-Leone, 1970, 1987) and the approach

ing away from irrelevant details is a theoretical virtue, but the kinds of abstractions that module geography makes can lead to incorrect inferences from data. That such a possibility exists is clearly demonstrated by the working memory research of Just & Carpenter (1992). Briefly, Just and Carpenter have argued that some garden path effects that were previously interpreted in terms of a syntactically encapsulated module can instead be explained by individual differences in working memory capacity. Such an explanation is not considered in a theoretical framework that systematically ignores the role of memory structures in parsing. This point should be taken regardless of whether one is convinced by the current body of empirical support for this particular model---the fact remains that such an explanation could in principle account for the data, and these alternative explanations are only discovered by developing functionally complete architectures. The next few sections describes what ...

Abstract not found

Several authors have hypothesized that visuo-spatial working memory is functionally analogous to verbal working memory. Irrelevant background speech impairs verbal short-term memory. We investigated whether irrelevant visual information has an analogous effect on visual short-term memory, using a dynamic visual noise (DVN) technique known to disrupt visual imagery (Quinn & McConnell, 1996b). Experiment 1 replicated the effect of DVN on pegword imagery. Experiments 2 and 3 showed no effect of DVN on recall of static matrix patterns, despite a significant effect of a concurrent spatial tapping task. Experiment 4 showed no effect of DVN on encoding or maintenance of arrays of matrix patterns, despite testing memory by a recognition procedure to encourage visual rather than spatial processing. Serial position curves showed a oneitem recency effect typical of visual short-term memory. Experiment 5 showed no effect of DVN on short-term recognition of Chinese characters, despite effects of visual similarity and a concurrent colour memory task that confirmed visual processing of the characters. We conclude that irrelevant visual noise does not impair visual short-term memory. Visual working memory may not be functionally analogous to verbal working memory, and different cognitive processes may underlie visual short-term memory and visual imagery.

The role of verbal and visuospatial working memory in rule-based and information-integration category learning was examined. Previously, Maddox, Ashby, Ing, and Pickering (2004) found that a sequentially presented verbal working memory task did not affect information-integration learning, but disrupted rule-based learning when the rule was on the spatial frequency of a Gabor stimulus. This pattern was replicated in Experiment 1, in which the same category structures were used, but in which the verbal working memory task was replaced with a visuospatial analog. Experiment 2A examined rule-based learning on an oblique orientation and also found both verbal and visuospatial working memory tasks disrupting learning. Experiment 2B examined rule-based learning on a cardinal orientation and found a minimal effect of the verbal working memory task, but a large effect of the visuospatial working memory task. The conceptual significance of cardinal orientations and the role of visuospatial and verbal working memory in category learning are discussed. Perceptual categorization is a systematic differentiation among classes (or categories) of objects based on their perceptual features. A large body of evidence suggests that humans have available several category learning systems (see Ashby & Maddox, 2005, or Keri, 2003, for a review). The classical approach to categorization (Bruner, Goodnow, & Austin, 1956), and most multiplesystems approaches, postulate one categorization system based on an extraction of a categorization rule via hypothesis testing during an explicit reasoning process