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Adams 2018
Adams 2018
Review Article
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to review and discuss (on a continuum from idiographic, or concerned with
theories of working memory with special attention to their individual differences, to nomothetic, or concerned with
relevance to language processing. group norms). We examine recent research that has a
Method: We begin with an overview of the concept of bearing on these distinctions.
working memory itself and review some of the major theories. Results: Our review shows important differences between
Then, we show how theories of working memory can be working memory theories that can be described according
organized according to their stances on 3 major issues that to positions on the 3 continua just noted.
distinguish them: modularity (on a continuum from domain- Conclusion: Once properly understood, working memory
general to very modular), attention (on a continuum from theories, methods, and data can serve as quite useful tools
automatic to completely attention demanding), and purpose for language research.
W
orking memory can be described as a limited routine of counting, starting not with the sun itself but with
amount of information that can be temporarily the planet closest to it. The child also has to remember to
maintained in an accessible state, making it stop counting at the correct planet when the number 3
useful for many cognitive tasks. It is one of the most influ- is reached and then, perhaps, look toward the teacher for
ential topics discussed in psychological science. One of feedback. The limits of working memory are such that
the reasons for its popularity is the vast variety of activities there are many points at which this hybrid process can go
and cognitive processes in which working memory is thought awry because multiple skills compete for a limited working
to play a role. As a real-world type of example, suppose memory capacity. In a different kind of example, a young
a teacher tells the class that Earth is the third planet from child can understand what is meant by a tiger only by
the sun and asks a particular student to find it on a map holding in mind and combining three features, big, cat, and
of the solar system posted on a wall. The child must remember striped; a tiger is a big cat with stripes. These features distin-
the first part of the teacher’s speech (about the Earth’s guish a tiger from, in turn, a house cat (not big), a zebra
location) while processing the second part (the request for (not a cat), and a lion (not striped; cf. Halford, Cowan, &
the child to find it on the map; cf. A. Baddeley, 2003). At Andrews, 2007).
this point, thoughts about performing in front of the class
and how to handle that social demand may preoccupy Definitions and Conceptions of Working Memory:
working memory, competing with the assigned task. The
A Brief Overview
point that Earth is the third planet must be retained in a
ready form while the child implements a potentially tricky Although examples like the ones presented above give
us an idea of how working memory functions, it is often dif-
ficult to find one definition that encompasses all applications
a of working memory. Often, different theories—of working
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia
memory or otherwise—cannot be compared directly because
Correspondence to Nelson Cowan: cowann@missouri.edu
the theories, though nominally on the same topic, actually
Editor-in-Chief: Sean Redmond
are based on subtly different definitions of what is being
Editor: Ron Gillam
studied. Cowan (2017a) examined the definitions of work-
Received October 13, 2017
ing memory commonly stated or implied in the research lit-
Revision received January 25, 2018
Accepted February 18, 2018
erature and listed nine definitions. Here, we cover only a
https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_LSHSS-17-0114
Publisher Note: This article is part of the Clinical Forum: Working Disclosure: The authors have declared that no competing interests existed at the time
Memory in School-Age Children. of publication.
340 Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools • Vol. 49 • 340–355 • July 2018 • Copyright © 2018 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
342 Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools • Vol. 49 • 340–355 • July 2018
recirculate information in working memory and shuttle infor- 1986; A. Baddeley, 2000). The key difference between this
mation between working memory and long-term memory. and the modal model is that working memory here has been
The middle panel of Figure 1 shows the model that split into a few different specialized stores and a more general
sparked the field of working memory, initiated on the basis store. One specialized store (left-hand box in the middle
of a large number of experiments (A. D. Baddeley & Hitch, panel) is for phonological information, and another (right-
1974) and then put through several iterations (A. D. Baddeley, hand box in the middle panel) is for visuospatial information.
344 Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools • Vol. 49 • 340–355 • July 2018
has been held (short term vs. long term). Other, more mod- Unitary Theories With No Working Memory/Long-Term
ular theories may take time into account but also separate Memory Distinction
stores on the basis of the type of information (verbal, visuo- If working memory is to differ from long-term mem-
spatial, etc.). The modules, however, are not necessarily ory, we can think of two basic ways in which this difference
separate brain areas and could overlap neurally. By anal- can occur. There must be information in working memory
ogy, the U.S. government in Washington, D.C., includes that is limited to a certain time period, a temporal decay
three branches (modules), but any one geographical area in property, or limited to a certain amount of information, an
Washington can include representations of two or even all item capacity property. Either of these properties could be
three branches. modulated by the amount of interference. Nevertheless,
Certain consequences arise from regarding working if they do not exist at all, there would be only one kind
memory as either modular or not. In a modular theory, if of memory as posited by unitary memory theories, which
one module is at capacity in terms of the amount of infor- forgo any separation of short-term or working memory
mation it can actively store or process, other modules are versus long-term memory. (We will see that some such
still available for use. Less modular theories imply instead theorists still exist.) One of the earliest researchers to propose
that, when these nondiscriminatory areas of working mem- such a view was McGeoch (1932), who sought to argue
ory are at capacity, no type of information beyond capacity against Thorndike’s (1914) proposed law of disuse. Thorndike
will be processed or stored successfully. In what follows, suggested that, when a stimulus–response association is not
we examine a theory with no modularity and, then, consider activated for a long time, the strength of the connection
different types and degrees of modularity. decreases. One might then distinguish between short-term,
346 Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools • Vol. 49 • 340–355 • July 2018
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352 Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools • Vol. 49 • 340–355 • July 2018
354 Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools • Vol. 49 • 340–355 • July 2018