Working Memory, Thought, and Action

by Alan Baddeley

Overview

'Working Memory, Thought, and Action' is the magnum opus of one of the most influential cognitive psychologists of the past 50 years. This new volume on the model he created (with Graham Hitch) discusses the developments that have occurred within the model in the past twenty years, and places it within a broader context. Working memory is a temporary storage system that underpins our capacity for coherent thought. Some 30 years ago, Baddeley and Hitch proposed a way of thinking about working memory that has proved to be both valuable and influential in its application to practical problems. This book updates the theory, discussing both the evidence in its favour, and alternative approaches. In addition, it discusses the implications of the model for understanding social and emotional behaviour, concluding with an attempt to place working memory in a broader biological and philosophical context. Inside are chapters on the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad, the central executive and the episodic buffer. There are also chapters on the relevance to working memory of studies of the recency effect, of work based on individual differences, and of neuroimaging research. The broader implications of the concept of working memory are discussed in the chapters on social psychology, anxiety, depression, consciousness and on the control of action. Finally, Baddeley discusses the relevance of a concept of working memory to the classic problems of consciousness and free will. This new volume from one of the pioneers in memory research will doubtless emulate the success of its predecessor, and be a major publication within the psychological literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191004964
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	03/15/2007
Series:	Oxford Psychology Series , #45
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Alan Baddeley succeeded Donald Broadbent as Director of the APU in Cambridge. Some 20 years later he moved to Bristol University. He is now at University of York where he has re-established his old collaboration with Graham Hitch. His interests are in human memory in general and working memory more specifically, and in combining basic and applied research. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, of the European Academy and is a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, the Aristotle Prize for contributions to European Psychology, and was awarded the CBE for contributions to the study of memory.

Table of Contents

Preface     xi
Acknowledgements     xvii
Introduction and overview     1
Some history     2
Multicomponent working memory     5
The multicomponent model     7
Conclusions     13
Why do we need a phonological loop?     15
The evolutionary relevance of the loop     15
Language acquisition     16
Sublexical short-term memory     21
The problem of serial order     25
Chaining models     26
Contextual models     27
The phonological loop: challenges and growing points     35
Nairne's critique     35
The word length effect     38
Disrupting the phonological loop     49
The irrelevant speech effect     51
The phonological loop: an overview     60
Conclusion     62
Visuospatial short-term memory     63
The case for a separating visuospatial and verbal working memory     63
Fractionating visuospatial working memory     64
Memory for spatial location     65
Object-based short-term memory     67
Sequential storage in visuospatial short-term memory     73
Separating the threads     77
Conclusions     83
Imagery and visuospatial working memory     85
Visuospatial coding and verbal memory     86
Modelling the visuospatial sketchpad     91
Visual imagery     94
Conclusions     100
Recency, retrieval and the constant ratio rule     103
Recency in free recall     103
The constant ratio rule     105
Theories of the recency effect     108
The evolutionary function of recency     114
Fractionating the central executive     117
The central executive as rag-bag     118
Executive processes and the frontal lobes     119
Working memory and executive processes     122
Focusing the limited capacity     124
Task switching and the central executive     129
Division of attention as an executive skill     133
Conclusions     138
Long-term memory and the episodic buffer     139
Some reductionist views     139
Some skeletons in the working memory cupboard     141
The episodic buffer     148
Exploring the episodic buffer     157
Binding in visual working memory      157
Binding in memory for prose     160
Some implications     169
Individual differences and working memory span     175
The psychometric tradition     175
The concept of intelligence     176
Individual differences in working memory     181
What does working memory span measure?     184
What limits working memory span?     189
The speed hypothesis     189
The resource pool hypothesis     190
The inhibition hypothesis     192
Components of working memory     198
Fractionating the central executive     203
Working memory and education     205
Conclusion     209
Neuroimaging working memory     211
Positron emission tomography (PET)     211
Functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI)     213
Electroencephalography (EEG)     213
Other techniques     214
The naming of parts     216
What have we learned from imaging working memory?     217
Imaging the central executive     224
Meta-analysis of executive processing     228
Imaging retrieval processes     230
Some conclusions      231
Working memory and social behaviour     235
What controls behaviour?     235
Habits, schemata and deterministic control     236
The sense of agency     242
Working memory and self-control     246
Conclusions     255
Working memory and emotion 1: fear and craving     257
Cognition in extreme emotion     258
Clinical studies of anxiety and cognition     265
Modelling the impact of anxiety and cognition     269
Addiction and craving     272
Conclusion     275
Working memory and emotion II: depression and the wellsprings of action     277
Comparing the effects of anxiety and depression     277
Psychological theories of depression     284
The wellsprings of action     286
Working memory and depression     289
Emotion and the multicomponent model     293
Emotion: a broader view     295
Conclusions     300
Consciousness     301
A pragmatic approach to consciousness     301
Core consciousness     302
Consciousness under anaesthesia     304
Conscious control and the global workspace hypothesis     306
A neural basis for cognitive workspace     309
Consciousness and working memory     314
The multilevel control of action     317
Implicit control of action     317
A model of motor control     323
Implications of motor control for working memory     332
Conclusions     334
Working memory in context: life, the universe and everything     335
An evolutionary perspective     336
Some philosophical implications     339
Epilogue     348
References     351
Index     405

Editorial Reviews

"Researchers who are looking for up-to-date research summaries will find the book rewarding. Those working in other fields, such as anxiety and depression, will find sufficient reason to pay attention to the role of working memory in these areas...In short, this is a book that deserves wide readership."—PsycCritiques

From the Publisher