Working Memory and Human Cognition (Counterpoints: Cognition, Memory, and Language)

This new volume in the Counterpoints series compares and contrasts different conceptions of working memory, generally recognized as the human cognitive system responsible for temporary storage of information. The book includes proponents of several different views. Robert Logie discusses the theoretical and empirical utility of separating working memory into an articulatory loop, a phonological store, and a visuo-spatial sketchpad into visual and spatial subsystems. Patricia Carpenter provides evidence for a process view of working memory, arguing that both task-specific processing and general processing capabilities can account for the full range of working memory phenomena. She focuses on findings from reading comprehension and memory tasks suggesting that working memory is used to represent the set of skills and strategies necessary for complex tasks, while retaining residual capacity for use as a storage buffer. Lynn Hasher argues in favor of the new inhibitory model, with evidence drawn from the literature on aging and pathology that demonstrates parallels between memory disorders and normal memory functioning. Randall Engle addresses the issue of whether working memory resources are required for retrieval of information or whether that task is relatively automatic. Engle's empirical studies, in turn, bear directly on the positions of Carpenter, Hasher, and Logie. As interest in working memory is increasing at a rapid pace, an open discussion of the central issues involved is both useful and timely. This work serves this purpose for a wide audience of cognitive psychologists and their students.

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Engle, Randall W.

Hasher, Lynn

Logie, Robert H.

Stoltzfus, Ellen R.

Zacks, Rose T.

Richardson, John T.E.

Psychology & Counseling

Oxford University Press

<p>This new volume in the Counterpoints series compares and contrasts different conceptions of working memory, generally recognized as the mechanism within the human cognitive system that is responsible for the temporary storage and processing of information. This notion has been used in a wide variety of ways, partly because it encapsulates several themes that have appeared in the history of research into human memory and cognition. Consequently, variations in the usage of the term working memory also arise because it is invoked by theorists with different research agendas and perspectives. The book includes contributions from proponents of different views: Robert Logie discusses the existence of three different components that control temporary verbal storage, temporary visuo-spatial storage, and the central coordination of both processing and storage, including the retrieval of information from long-term memory. Ellen Stoltzfus, Lynn Hasher, and Rose Zacks focus on the inhibitory processes that control the entrance of information into working memory and update the contents by deleting information that is no longer relevant to the task at hand. Randall Engle argues that individual differences in working memory are tantamount to differences in the attentional resources needed to retrieve information from memory, and that these lead to differences in the ability to inhibit or suppress irrelevant information. Finally, editor John Richardson identifies the key issues that have divided researchers in this field and gives an integrated account of what has been discovered about working memory. As interest in working memory is increasing at a rapid pace, an open discussion of the central issues involved is both useful and timely. This work serves this purpose for cognitive psychologists and their students.<br></p>

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