1. What is working memory? 2. Time and working memory 3. Time-based resource sharing 4. Working memory loss 5. Working memory reconstruction 6. A working memory architecture 7. Working memory in development and individual differences 8. Controversies and prospects in working memory Epilogue: Searching for working memory
Pierre Barrouillet is Professor of developmental psychology at the
University of Geneva, Switzerland, and Director of the Archives
Jean Piaget. His research investigates the development of numerical
cognition, conditional reasoning, as well as the functioning and
development of working memory.
Valérie Camos is Professor of developmental psychology at the
Université of Fribourg, Switzerland. She created and currently
heads the Fribourg Center for Cognition, a multidisciplinary
research centre. Aside from her research on working memory, she is
also still interested in numerical cognition.
'One of the central questions within current cognitive psychology
concerns the puzzle of how an apparently simple measure, working
memory span, is able to predict performance across a wide range of
areas from language comprehension to attentional control, rivalling
conventional intelligence tests in its predictive breadth and
capacity. Barrouillet and Camos describe an extensive series of
studies focused on this issue. They were the first to demonstrate
that measures of working memory span do not require complex
subtasks such as language comprehension and arithmetic processing,
but can be obtained based extremely simple operations, provided
these are made continuous, allowing no opportunity for participants
to insert even brief periods of rehearsal. They develop their Time
Based Resource Sharing (TBRS) model to account for these results,
postulating the need for temporary storage which in turn requires
attentional refreshing if the relevant memory trace is not to fade.
They place their work in a broad historic context, argue cogently
for their concept of decay rather than the more popular proposal of
forgetting through interference, going on to apply their approach
across a wide range of situations and populations. Their work makes
an important contribution to a topic of central importance. This
book does a service to the field in summarising their extensive
research program, presenting it clearly, and comparing it with
alternative interpretations. This book should certainly be on the
shelves of anyone interested in individual differences in cognition
and their basis in working memory.' – Alan Baddeley, Department of
Psychology, University of York, UK'In this era of brain images, one
might assume that there is little left to learn using the primary
tool that has been available to researchers of cognition for the
past half-century: computers that can present visual and acoustic
events and can record the speed and accuracy of human responses to
these events. This assumption would be quite wrong for a number of
topics, including the present topic of working memory. It is the
small amount of information one can hold in mind to allow ideas to
be constructed, language to be understood, problems to be solved,
and intelligent actions to be carried out, and it improves as
children develop. Barrouillet and Camos document this exciting,
ongoing field of research in which incredible new discoveries are
being made at a rapid rate: discoveries related to how long humans
can hold a thought in mind, how many thoughts can co-exist, how
they can be shielded from loss or reconstructed from memory, and
how new concepts can be constructed from old ones. This
rapidly-advancing field still hosts controversies about basic
mechanisms of the mind, comparable to how physics hosts
controversies about elementary particles. The authors are at the
forefront of the working memory debate because of their own
ground-breaking research, well-explained in this book that
represents various views well and yet is an effective advocate for
the authors’ own comprehensive view. Readers get a historical
perspective and are also taken to current research battlefronts in
an organized, engaging, succinct, and easy-to-read summary.' -
Nelson Cowan, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of
Missouri-Columbia, USA'The Time-Based Resource-Sharing (TBRS) model
takes a promising approach to understanding the mechanisms of
working memory. It not only helps explain a wide range of key
phenomena in this field but also provides predictions and
directions for on-going working memory research. This sophisticated
framework captures the temporal dynamics of working memory function
quite nicely, as well as its development and inter-individual
variations. This book commences with a comprehensive review of
short-term and working memory research based on various historical
and theoretical considerations, followed by a detailed presentation
of the TBRS model and the introduction of some novel concepts.
While the contents of this book are easily accessible and appealing
to postgraduate students, active researchers in the field of human
memory will also find the contents stimulating, as the issues
covered in this volume are at the theoretical vanguard and include
hot, up-to-date debates in the field.' – Satoru Saito, Associate
Professor, Department of Cognitive Psychology in Education, Kyoto
University, Japan 'Specialists in working memory and attention will
be grateful for the detail with which the authors explain the
studies they believe are central support for their viewpoint. ...
Barrouillet and Casmos's willingness to reconsider ideas that have
guided decades of research is critical to our field's forward
progress. ... Barrouillet and Camos invite us to consider the road
less traveled by. This invitation promises us the chance to move
our understanding of working memory forward.' – Kristi S. Multhaup
and Blaire J. Weidler, PsycCRITIQUES, 2015'Barrouillet and Camos
develop an argument for their own model of working memory [...]
Barrouillet and Camos demonstrate a tremendous grasp of the extant
research literature on working memory.' -K.S. Millar, Earlham
College
'One of the central questions within current cognitive psychology
concerns the puzzle of how an apparently simple measure, working
memory span, is able to predict performance across a wide range of
areas from language comprehension to attentional control, rivalling
conventional intelligence tests in its predictive breadth and
capacity. Barrouillet and Camos describe an extensive series of
studies focused on this issue. They were the first to demonstrate
that measures of working memory span do not require complex
subtasks such as language comprehension and arithmetic processing,
but can be obtained based extremely simple operations, provided
these are made continuous, allowing no opportunity for participants
to insert even brief periods of rehearsal. They develop their Time
Based Resource Sharing (TBRS) model to account for these results,
postulating the need for temporary storage which in turn requires
attentional refreshing if the relevant memory trace is not to fade.
They place their work in a broad historic context, argue cogently
for their concept of decay rather than the more popular proposal of
forgetting through interference, going on to apply their approach
across a wide range of situations and populations. Their work makes
an important contribution to a topic of central importance. This
book does a service to the field in summarising their extensive
research program, presenting it clearly, and comparing it with
alternative interpretations. This book should certainly be on the
shelves of anyone interested in individual differences in cognition
and their basis in working memory.' – Alan Baddeley, Department of
Psychology, University of York, UK'In this era of brain images, one
might assume that there is little left to learn using the primary
tool that has been available to researchers of cognition for the
past half-century: computers that can present visual and acoustic
events and can record the speed and accuracy of human responses to
these events. This assumption would be quite wrong for a number of
topics, including the present topic of working memory. It is the
small amount of information one can hold in mind to allow ideas to
be constructed, language to be understood, problems to be solved,
and intelligent actions to be carried out, and it improves as
children develop. Barrouillet and Camos document this exciting,
ongoing field of research in which incredible new discoveries are
being made at a rapid rate: discoveries related to how long humans
can hold a thought in mind, how many thoughts can co-exist, how
they can be shielded from loss or reconstructed from memory, and
how new concepts can be constructed from old ones. This
rapidly-advancing field still hosts controversies about basic
mechanisms of the mind, comparable to how physics hosts
controversies about elementary particles. The authors are at the
forefront of the working memory debate because of their own
ground-breaking research, well-explained in this book that
represents various views well and yet is an effective advocate for
the authors’ own comprehensive view. Readers get a historical
perspective and are also taken to current research battlefronts in
an organized, engaging, succinct, and easy-to-read summary.' -
Nelson Cowan, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of
Missouri-Columbia, USA'The Time-Based Resource-Sharing (TBRS) model
takes a promising approach to understanding the mechanisms of
working memory. It not only helps explain a wide range of key
phenomena in this field but also provides predictions and
directions for on-going working memory research. This sophisticated
framework captures the temporal dynamics of working memory function
quite nicely, as well as its development and inter-individual
variations. This book commences with a comprehensive review of
short-term and working memory research based on various historical
and theoretical considerations, followed by a detailed presentation
of the TBRS model and the introduction of some novel concepts.
While the contents of this book are easily accessible and appealing
to postgraduate students, active researchers in the field of human
memory will also find the contents stimulating, as the issues
covered in this volume are at the theoretical vanguard and include
hot, up-to-date debates in the field.' – Satoru Saito, Associate
Professor, Department of Cognitive Psychology in Education, Kyoto
University, Japan
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