Working Memory: Activation Limitations on Retrieval

Anderson, John R.; Reder, Lynne M.; Lebière, Christian

doi:10.1006/cogp.1996.0007

Cited by 278 publications

(287 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The pattern of priming effects reported here is generally consistent with all of the previously discussed WM models that incorporate active or accessible LTM as part of WM (Anderson, 1983(Anderson, , 1993Anderson et al, 1996;Cantor & Engle, 1993;Cowan, 1995Cowan, , 1999Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995;Just & Carpenter, 1992;Oberauer, 2002). The present experiments were not designed to explicitly contrast these models; instead, they were designed to test the fundamental assumption of greater LTM availability that underlies all of them.…”

Section: Theoretical Interpretation Of Altm Effectssupporting

confidence: 83%

“…There was no capacity limit per se, except that activation had to be shared by all the elements receiving activation from a given source. However, Anderson, Reder, and Lebiere (1996) added an explicit assumption that the amount of source activation had a fixed limit that reflected the amount of attention that could be devoted to source objects. Thus, the capacity for activation was linked to that of attention, despite the fact that much more information could be activated to some level of availability than would be expected from strict attention-based WM models.…”

Section: Ltm Processes In Wm Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As has been noted by Cowan (1999), prior evidence suggests that activation decays with time. It is possible, however, that activation might also be limited by the number of elements sharing activation (Anderson et al, 1996). These issues will require considerably more empirical evidence to resolve.…”

Section: Attentional Resources and Altmmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Availability of related long-term memory during and after attention focus in working memory

2006

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The construct of working memory (WM), as described by Baddeley and Hitch (1974), has had a far-reaching impact on theories of cognition. For years, Baddeley's model was the predominant theory of WM, and it remained relatively unchanged, with its two storage components for visuospatial and phonological information and a central executive component for coordinating storage and various processing functions. 1 A defining feature of all three of these subcomponents has been their attention-driven nature. In fact, at one point, Baddeley (1993) reflected that it may have been more appropriate to use the term working attention, rather than working memory. The term attention is used by Baddeley, as well as by many other authors within the WM literature, to refer broadly to effortful processes that range from rehearsal procedures to executive functions, such as planning, organizing, and controlling cognitive actions. In this article, we rely on the broad distinction between deliberate, attention-driven processes of WM that operate within the awareness of the individual and processes that operate outside of conscious awareness, such as implicit memory processes that underlie various forms of priming.Various theorists have noted that relatively smallcapacity, attention-driven storage components of WM fail to explain complex cognitive activities such as language comprehension, in which a great deal of information needs to be temporarily available for processing (e.g., Anderson, 1983;Cowan, 1999;Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995;Just & Carpenter, 1992;Kintsch, Patel, & Ericsson, 1999). Corresponding to this criticism, alternative conceptualizations of WM have been proposed that allow for more information to be available for processing at any given moment. Most define this greater availability in terms of long-term memory (LTM) activation, or the temporary increase in retrieval strength of existing memory representations. These models differ in important respects, but of interest here is their common inclusion of long-term memory structures that are temporarily available for processing but that are not in the current focus of attention. Most of these alternative models postulate that both attentiondriven WM processes and automatic LTM activation or retrieval processes effectively define capacity limits that constrain complex processing activities. Furthermore, some suggest that the LTM activation processes are capacity limited in a different manner than the attention-driven processes. However, direct empirical evidence regarding these issues is limited. LTM Processes in WM ModelsA variety of WM models that represent alternatives to Baddeley's model have been proposed within different theoretical contexts (see Miyake & Shah, 1999). We will describe only a few of these that are most prominent in their inclusion of active-but-unattended LTM elements in WM. Virtually all WM theorists acknowledge the contribution of LTM knowledge structures to WM performance, but some have proposed models in which LTM processes are central to the definition...

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Section: Theoretical Interpretation Of Altm Effectssupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Ltm Processes In Wm Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Availability of related long-term memory during and after attention focus in working memory

2006

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“…One class of theories of human memory proposes that working memory is the capacity-limited activated portion of long-term memory (7,42,43). Our results show how the classic theories of human memory that propose retrieved long-term memories are brought back into working memory can be reconciled with the class of theories in which working memory is the active portion of long-term memory.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Visual working memory buffers information retrieved from visual long-term memory

Fukuda

Woodman

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Human memory is thought to consist of long-term storage and shortterm storage mechanisms, the latter known as working memory. Although it has long been assumed that information retrieved from long-term memory is represented in working memory, we lack neural evidence for this and need neural measures that allow us to watch this retrieval into working memory unfold with high temporal resolution. Here, we show that human electrophysiology can be used to track information as it is brought back into working memory during retrieval from long-term memory. Specifically, we found that the retrieval of information from long-term memory was limited to just a few simple objects' worth of information at once, and elicited a pattern of neurophysiological activity similar to that observed when people encode new information into working memory. Our findings suggest that working memory is where information is buffered when being retrieved from long-term memory and reconcile current theories of memory retrieval with classic notions about the memory mechanisms involved.visual working memory | visual long-term memory retrieval | EEG H umans are capable of storing an essentially limitless amount of information in long-term memory and can remember specific pieces of information when needed to guide behavior. For over a century, researchers have proposed that, when humans retrieve information from long-term memory, we do this by bringing the information back into working memory (1-3). This has become so engrained in the dogma regarding how human memory works that retrieving information from long-term memory into working memory is described in introductory textbooks (e.g., refs. 4 and 5). However, although there is behavioral evidence in line with the notion that information retrieved from long-term memory is brought back into working memory (ref. 6; see ref. 7 for a review of additional classic evidence; refs. 8-10), a direct demonstration that this is occurring in brain is needed. If we were able to track this cognitive process, we could use it to understand the fine-grained dynamics of memory retrieval.In the present study, we took advantage of the fact that encoding new sensory information into working memory is capacity limited (11-16). Neuroscientific studies have established that the encoding of a subset of the available visual information into working memory can be measured by frequency-specific oscillations of subjects' electroencephalograms (EEGs) (17)(18)(19)(20). Specifically, the magnitude of suppression of alpha-band oscillations (8-13 Hz) measured across parieto-occipital channels as new information is held in working memory changes as additional information is loaded into working memory and hits an asymptote at a subject's working-memory capacity estimated from behavioral performance. We chose this neural correlate of working memory over other correlates (e.g., the contralateral delay activity in ref. 12) because it allowed the estimation of working-memory load without necessitating the presentation of to-be-ignored dis...

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“…They differ primarily in the assumptions they invoke to explain the limit. Some theories assume that a limited capacity for activation constrains the number of items that can be kept sufficiently active to be recalled (Anderson, Reder, & Lebiere, 1996;Daneman & Carpenter, 1980;Just & Carpenter, 1992;Logan, 1978Logan, , 1979see Kahneman, 1973;Moray, 1967;Posner & Boies, 1971). Other theories assume that activation decays over time and only a limited number of items can be kept active enough to be recalled Baddeley, 1986Baddeley, , 1996Baddeley & Hitch, 1974;Cowan, 1995Cowan, , 1999Hitch, Towse, & Hutton, 2001).…”

Section: Capacity Limitations In Working Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Working Memory, Task Switching, and Executive Control in the Task Span Procedure.

Logan

2004

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

105

167

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Four experiments explored the task span procedure: Subjects received lists of 1-10 task names to remember and then lists of 1-10 stimuli on which to perform the tasks. Task span is the number of tasks performed in order perfectly. Experiment 1 compared the task span with the traditional memory span in 6 practiced subjects and found little difference. Experiment 2 compared the task span and the memory span in 64 unpracticed subjects and also found little difference. Experiment 3 compared practice with consistent and varied lists to address retrieval from long-term memory. Experiment 4 manipulated the number of task switches and found that it had little effect on task spans. The results suggest there is no trade-off between storage and task switching, which supports some theories of executive control and challenges others.Executive control is the instrument of volition. It is the process by which the mind programs itself and exercises control over the execution of its programs. Executive control is an important topic in many areas of psychology, including cognitive science, cognitive neuroscience, life span development, psychopathology, and individual differences. Executive control appears in various guises, so it is studied in various ways. Two of the most popular domains in which it is studied are working memory and task switching. This article concerns the relation between working memory and task switching and what it reveals about the nature of executive control. It introduces a new experimental paradigm called the task span procedure that was designed to reveal the interaction between working memory and task switching: Subjects are given a list of tasks to perform and then a series of stimuli to perform them on. The task span procedure requires working memory to store the list of task names and keep track of progress through the list. It requires task switching because successive tasks on the list are generally different. It also requires subordinate processes, controlled by the executive, to perform the tasks on the list. The task span procedure addresses several issues that distinguish theories of working memory, including the nature of capacity limitations, the nature of information loss, and the role of long-term memory in working-memory spans. The task span procedure also addresses issues in the task-switching literature, including what is involved in changing from one task to another. The Task Span ProcedureIn principle, the task span procedure can involve any number of tasks of any kind. In everyday life, it could involve a series of chores you hope to accomplish on a weekend or a series of meetings in your office at work. In this article, the task span procedure involves three tasks that can be performed on numbers that are presented as digits (e.g., 3) or words (e.g., nine). The three tasks are magnitude judgments (i.e., is the number greater than or less than 5?), parity judgments (i.e., is the number odd or even?), and form judgments (i.e., is the number a digit or a word?). The task names specify ...

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Working Memory: Activation Limitations on Retrieval

Cited by 278 publications

References 26 publications

Availability of related long-term memory during and after attention focus in working memory

Availability of related long-term memory during and after attention focus in working memory

Visual working memory buffers information retrieved from visual long-term memory

Working Memory, Task Switching, and Executive Control in the Task Span Procedure.

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