Modeling working memory: An interference model of complex span

Oberauer, Klaus; Lewandowsky, Stephan; Farrell, Simon; Jarrold, Christopher; Greaves, Martin

doi:10.3758/s13423-012-0272-4

Cited by 346 publications

(592 citation statements)

References 160 publications

(266 reference statements)

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“…The mechanism by which unbinding takes place is identical to that which accomplishes response suppression during recall. Oberauer, Lewandowsky, et al (2012) showed that with the inclusion of this unbinding process, SOB-CS produces the linear effect of cognitive load on memory performance.…”

Section: Cognitive Load (B1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The two forms of interference most favoured by the evidence --interference by confusion of items, and interference from superposition --are implemented in a computational model of WM, the SOB-CS model (Oberauer, Lewandowsky, et al, 2012), which allows us to determine what predictions the mechanisms imply when operating jointly.…”

Section: Interferencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interference by superposition decreases as the degree of feature-space overlap decreases, because the distortion caused by superposition arises from summing (or averaging) feature values within a shared feature dimension. In a neural-network model such as SOB-CS, different feature spaces are implemented as different sets of units over which representations are distributed (Oberauer, Lewandowsky, et al, 2012). A purely visual representation of a red circle and a purely phonological representation of a word do not interfere with each other because their distributed representations are distributed over different, non-overlapping sets of units in a neural network.…”

Section: Interferencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…One suggested solution is that the free time is used to "remove" representations of previously processed distractors from WM, by unbinding them from their encoding context, thereby reducing interference with the memoranda (Oberauer, Lewandowsky, et al, 2012). Every theory of WM must assume some process by which WM is cleared of no-longer relevant representations.…”

Section: Cognitive Load (B1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Oberauer, Lewandowsky, et al (2012) have implemented this idea in one interference model of WM, SOB-CS. In SOB-CS, every distractor is associated with the context in which it is encountered, and when processing is complete that association is unbound.…”

Section: Cognitive Load (B1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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What limits working memory capacity?

Oberauer

Farrell

Jarrold

et al. 2016

Psychological Bulletin

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276

213

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We review the evidence for the three principal theoretical contenders that vie to explain why and how working memory capacity is limited. We examine the possibility that capacity limitations arise from temporal decay; we examine whether they might reflect a limitation in cognitive resources; and we ask whether capacity might be limited because of mutual interference of representations in working memory. We evaluate each hypothesis against a common set of findings reflecting the capacity limit: The set-size effect and its modulation by domain-specificity and heterogeneity of the memory set; the effects of unfilled retention intervals and of distractor processing in the retention interval; and the pattern of correlates of working-memory tests. We conclude that---at least for verbal memoranda---a decay explanation is untenable. A resource-based view remains tenable but has difficulty accommodating several findings. The interference approach has its own set of difficulties but accounts best for the set of findings, and therefore appears to present the most promising approach for future development.Keywords: working memory, decay, resources, interference, individual differences WM Capacity 3 What Limits Working Memory Capacity?Working memory (WM) is the system that holds mental representations available for processing. Its limited capacity is a limiting factor for the complexity of our thoughts (Halford, Cowan, & Andrews, 2007;Oberauer, 2009). Measures of WM capacity have been identified as major determinants of cognitive development in childhood (Bayliss, Jarrold, Gunn, & Baddeley, 2003) and in old age (Park et al., 2002;Salthouse, 1994), as well as of individual differences in intellectual abilities (Conway, Kane, & Engle, 2003;Jarrold & Towse, 2006). Understanding why WM capacity is limited is therefore an essential step toward understanding why human cognitive abilities are limited, why individuals differ in these abilities, and how abilities develop over the lifespan.In this article we use the term WM capacity in a descriptive sense, referring to the fact that people can hold only a limited amount of mental content available for processing. The capacity limit is usually operationalized as a limit on how much new information people can remember over short periods of time (in the order of seconds), but there are reasons to believe (discussed below) that the capacity limit also applies to people's ability to make information in the current environment simultaneously available for processing.Hypotheses about what limits WM capacity can be organized into three groups: (1) Some theories assume that representations in WM decay over time, unless decay is prevented by some form of restoration process such as rehearsal. According to this view, WM has limited capacity because only a limited amount of information can be rehearsed before it fades away into an irrecoverable state (Baddeley, Thomson, & Buchanan, 1975;Schweickert & Boruff, 1986). (2) Alternatively, WM capacity has been characterized as a limited resourc...

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Section: Cognitive Load (B1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interferencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interferencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cognitive Load (B1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cognitive Load (B1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

What limits working memory capacity?

Oberauer

Farrell

Jarrold

et al. 2016

Psychological Bulletin

Self Cite

276

213

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Effects of working memory training on emotion regulation: Transdiagnostic review

Barkus

2020

PsyCh Journal

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Working memory training is widely used transdiagnostically to improve cognition. However, more recently, studies using working memory training packages have targeted emotion-regulation outcomes to determine whether far transfer effects can be achieved.A narrative review is conducted of studies that have used standardized computerized working memory training packages across healthy volunteers, affect, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disordered populations with emotion-regulation outcomes.Working memory training has been used in children, adolescents, and adults to improve emotion regulation. Many studies have reported gains in mood as well as emotion-regulation strategies following working memory training, regardless of clinical indication and whether near transfer gains were achieved in cognitive domains. Significant emotion-regulation outcomes include: state and trait anxiety, rumination, brooding, positive appraisal, decreasing maladaptive emotion-regulation strategies, and decreasing intrusive thoughts. It is speculated that these far transfer outcomes from working memory training are possible due to the cognitive and neural overlap between cognitive and affective working memory, and emotion regulation. Working memory training could improve cognitive efficiency, which, in turn, increases the availability of cognitive resources during times when emotion regulation is taxed. Future studies need to consider the role of participant expectancy in predicting outcome measure performance, and including subjective and objective outcomes is paramount to study design. Furthermore, sample sizes require additional attention, given that the current review highlights that individual differences in non-clinical and clinical populations influence the outcomes from working memory training. Working memory training offers a possibility for improving emotion regulation transdiagnostically.

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Proactive interference and the development of working memory

Hamilton

Ross

Blaser

et al. 2022

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Working Memory (WM), the ability to maintain information in service to a task, is characterized by its limited capacity. Several influential models attribute this limitation in a large extent to proactive interference (Anderson & Neely, 1996;Bunting, 2006;Kane & Engle, 2000), the phenomenon that previously encoded, now-irrelevant information competes with relevant information (Keppel & Underwood, 1963). Here, we look back at the adult PI literature, spanning over sixty years, as well as recent results linking the ability to cope with PI to WM capacity (Endress & Potter, 2014;Kane & Engle, 2000). In early development, WM capacity is even more limited (Kaldy & Leslie, 2005;Simmering, 2012), yet an accounting for the role of PI has been lacking. Our Focus Article aims to address this through an integrative account: since PI resolution is mediated by networks involving the frontal cortex (particularly, the left inferior frontal gyrus) and the posterior parietal cortex (Badre & Wagner, 2005;Jonides & Nee, 2006), and since children have protracted development and less recruitment (Crone et al., 2006) of these areas, the increase in the ability to cope with PI (Kail, 2002; De Visscher & Noel, 2014) is a major factor underlying the increase in WM capacity in early development. Given this, we suggest that future research should focus on mechanistic studies of PI resolution in children. Finally, we note a crucial methodological implication: typical WM paradigms repeat stimuli from trial-to-trial, facilitating, inadvertently, PI and reducing performance; we may be fundamentally underestimating children's WM capacity.

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Modeling working memory: An interference model of complex span

Cited by 346 publications

References 160 publications

What limits working memory capacity?

What limits working memory capacity?

Effects of working memory training on emotion regulation: Transdiagnostic review

Proactive interference and the development of working memory

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