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Working Memory Capacity

Author : Nelson Cowan

Publisher : Psychology Press

Page : 238 pages

File Size : 20,21 MB

Release : 2016-04-14

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 1317232380

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Book Description

The idea of one's memory "filling up" is a humorous misconception of how memory in general is thought to work; it actually has no capacity limit. However, the idea of a "full brain" makes more sense with reference to working memory, which is the limited amount of information a person can hold temporarily in an especially accessible form for use in the completion of almost any challenging cognitive task. This groundbreaking book explains the evidence supporting Cowan's theoretical proposal about working memory capacity, and compares it to competing perspectives. Cognitive psychologists profoundly disagree on how working memory is limited: whether by the number of units that can be retained (and, if so, what kind of units and how many), the types of interfering material, the time that has elapsed, some combination of these mechanisms, or none of them. The book assesses these hypotheses and examines explanations of why capacity limits occur, including vivid biological, cognitive, and evolutionary accounts. The book concludes with a discussion of the practical importance of capacity limits in daily life. This 10th anniversary Classic Edition will continue to be accessible to a wide range of readers and serve as an invaluable reference for all memory researchers.



Working Memory Capacity

Author : Nelson Cowan

Publisher : Psychology Press

Page : 235 pages

File Size : 15,45 MB

Release : 2012-06-12

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 1135432066

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Book Description

This book tackles the problem of working memory capacity limits and the future of research on this topic. This book will be invaluable to working memory researchers and cognitive psychologists interested in memory.



Working Memory Capacity

Author : Nelson Cowan

Publisher : Psychology Press

Page : 442 pages

File Size : 28,70 MB

Release : 2012-06-12

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 1135432058

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Book Description

The idea of one's memory "filling up" is a humorous misconception of how memory in general is thought to work; it is actually has no capacity limit. However, the idea of a "full brain" makes more sense with reference to working memory, which is the limited amount of information a person can hold temporarily in an especially accessible form for use in the completion of almost any challenging cognitive task. This groundbreaking book explains the evidence supporting Cowan's theoretical proposal about working memory capacity, and compares it to competing perspectives. Cognitive psychologists profoundly disagree on how working memory is limited: whether by the number of units that can be retained (and, if so, what kind of units and how many?), the types of interfering material, the time that has elapsed, some combination of these mechanisms, or none of them. The book assesses these hypotheses and examines explanations of why capacity limits occur, including vivid biological, cognitive, and evolutionary accounts. The book concludes with a discussion of the practical importance of capacity limits in daily life. Incorporating the latest from the recent surge in research into working memory capacity limits and the remarkable new insights provided by neuroimaging techniques, this book serves as an invaluable resource for all memory researchers and is accessible to a wide range of readers.



Variation in Working Memory

Author : Andrew Conway

Publisher : Oxford University Press

Page : 347 pages

File Size : 28,95 MB

Release : 2008-02-13

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 019972167X

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Book Description

Working memory--the ability to keep important information in mind while comprehending, thinking, and acting--varies considerably from person to person and changes dramatically during each person's life. Understanding such individual and developmental differences is crucial because working memory is a major contributor to general intellectual functioning. This volume offers a state-of-the-art, integrative, and comprehensive approach to understanding variation in working memory by presenting explicit, detailed comparisons of the leading theories. It incorporates views from the different research groups that operate on each side of the Atlantic, and covers working-memory research on a wide variety of populations, including healthy adults, children with and without learning difficulties, older adults, and adults and children with neurological disorders. A particular strength of this volume is that each research group explicitly addresses the same set of theoretical questions, from the perspective of both their own theoretical and experimental work and from the perspective of relevant alternative approaches. Through these questions, each research group considers their overarching theory of working memory, specifies the critical sources of working memory variation according to their theory, reflects on the compatibility of their approach with other approaches, and assesses their contribution to general working memory theory. This shared focus across chapters unifies the volume and highlights the similarities and differences among the various theories. Each chapter includes both a summary of research positions and a detailed discussion of each position. Variation in Working Memory achieves coherence across its chapters, while presenting the entire range of current theoretical and experimental approaches to variation in working memory.



The Nature of Remembering

Author : Robert G. Crowder

Publisher : Amer Psychological Assn

Page : 396 pages

File Size : 21,23 MB

Release : 2001-01-01

Category : Medical

ISBN : 9781557987501

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Book Description

Annotation This proceedings of the conference held in June 1999 at Yale U. is also a festschrift to Crowder (d. 2000), who taught at the same institution and whose life and career are the subject of the initial chapter. Subsequent chapters consider topics that include: episodic memory, the issues raised concerning the semantic activation from reading, implicit phenomena of cognition and its reception by social psychologists, the serial position curve and the effects of mode of presentation, touch as a modality of information, the effects of irrelevant speech and sounds on memory, and the Ranschburg effect. The concluding four chapters are devoted to issues of short-term memory. All of the contributors teach psychology at universities in the US and Canada. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).



The Learning Brain

Author : Torkel Klingberg

Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA

Page : 196 pages

File Size : 40,7 MB

Release : 2013

Category : Education

ISBN : 0199917108

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Book Description

Despite all our highly publicized efforts to improve our schools, the United States is still falling behind. We recently ranked 15th in the world in reading, math, and science. Clearly, more needs to be done. In The Learning Brain, Torkel Klingberg urges us to use the insights of neuroscience to improve the education of our children. The key to improving education lies in understanding how the brain works: that is where learning takes place, after all. The book focuses in particular on working memory--our ability to concentrate and to keep relevant information in our head while ignoring distractions (a topic the author covered in The Overflowing Brain). Research shows enormous variation in working memory among children, with some ten-year-olds performing at the level of a fourteen-year old, others at that of a six-year old. More important, children with high working memory have better math and reading skills, while children with poor working memory consistently underperform. Interestingly, teachers tend to perceive children with poor working memory as dreamy or unfocused, not recognizing that these children have a memory problem. But what can we do for these children? For one, we can train working memory. The Learning Brain provides a variety of different techniques and scientific insights that may just teach us how to improve our children's working memory. Klingberg also discusses how stress can impair working memory (skydivers tested just before a jump showed a 30% drop in working memory) and how aerobic exercise can actually modify the brain's nerve cells and improve classroom performance. Torkel Klingberg is one of the world's leading cognitive neuroscientists, but in this book he wears his erudition lightly, writing with simplicity and good humor as he shows us how to give our children the best chance to learn and grow.



Visual Memory

Author : Steven J. Luck

Publisher : OUP USA

Page : 347 pages

File Size : 15,24 MB

Release : 2008-09-10

Category : Medical

ISBN : 0195305485

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Book Description

Vision and memory are two of the most intensively studied topics in psychology and neuroscience. This book provides a state-of-the-art account of visual memory systems. Each chapter is written by an internationally renowned researcher, who has made seminal contributions to the topic.



The Development of Memory in Infancy and Childhood

Author : Mary L. Courage

Publisher : Psychology Press

Page : 423 pages

File Size : 11,64 MB

Release : 2008-09-08

Category : Family & Relationships

ISBN : 1135419817

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Book Description

Human memory is not only the repository of our past but the essence of who we are. As such, it is of enduring fascination. We marvel at its resilience in some situations and its fragility in others. The origin of this extraordinary cognitive capacity in infancy and childhood is the focus of vigorous research and debate as we seek to understand the record of our earliest beginnings. The first edition of this volume, The Development of Memory in Childhood, documented the state-of-the-art science of memory development a decade ago. This new edition, The Development of Memory in Infancy and Childhood, provides a thorough update and expansion of the previous text and offers reviews of new research on significant themes and ideas that have emerged since then. Topics include basic memory processes in infants and toddlers, the cognitive neuroscience of memory development, the cognitive and social factors that underlie our memory for implicit and explicit events, autobiographical memory and infantile amnesia, working memory, the role of strategies and knowledge in driving memory development, and the impact of stress and emotion on these basic processes. The book also includes applications of basic memory processes to a variety of real world settings from the courtroom to the classroom. Including contributions from many of the best researchers in the field, this classic yet contemporary volume will appeal to senior undergraduate and graduate students of developmental and cognitive psychology as well as to developmental psychologists who want a compendium of current reviews on key topics in memory development.



Handbook of Individual Differences in Cognition

Author : Aleksandra Gruszka

Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media

Page : 494 pages

File Size : 26,49 MB

Release : 2010-06-16

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 9781441912107

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Book Description

As cognitive models of behavior continue to evolve, the mechanics of cognitive exceptionality, with its range of individual variations in abilities and performance, remains a challenge to psychology. Reaching beyond the standard view of exceptional cognition equaling superior intelligence, the Handbook of Individual Differences in Cognition examines the latest findings from psychobiology, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience, for a comprehensive state-of-the-art volume. Breaking down cognition in terms of attentional mechanisms, working memory, and higher-order processing, contributors discuss general models of cognition and personality. Chapter authors build on this foundation as they revisit current theory in such areas as processing effort and general arousal and examine emerging methods in individual differences research, including new data on the role of brain plasticity in cognitive function. The possibility of a unified theory of individual differences in cognitive ability and the extent to which these variables may account for real-world competencies are emphasized, and commentary chapters offer suggestions for further research priorities. Coverage highlights include: The relationship between cognition and temperamental traits. The development of autobiographical memory. Anxiety and attentional control. The neurophysiology of gender differences in cognitive ability. Intelligence and cognitive control. Individual differences in dual task coordination. The effects of subclinical depression on attention, memory, and reasoning. Mood as a shaper of information. Researchers, clinicians, and graduate students in psychology and cognitive sciences, including clinical psychology and neuropsychology, personality and social psychology, neuroscience, and education, will find the Handbook of Individual Differences in Cognition an expert guide to the field as it currently stands and to its agenda for the future.



Working Memory and Human Cognition

Author : John T. E. Richardson

Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA

Page : 176 pages

File Size : 40,89 MB

Release : 1996

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 0195101006

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Book Description

This title compares and contrasts different conceptions of working memory. This is one of the most important notions to have informed cognitive psychology over the last 20 years or so, and yet it has been used in a wide variety of ways. This is partly because contemporary usage of the phrase `working memory' encapsulates various themes that have appeared at different points in the history of research into human memory and cognition. This book presents three dominant views of working memory.