Neural Basis of Working Memory

Neural Basis and Theories of Working Memory

• Hitzig and Ferrier conducted ablation experiments on the prefrontal cortex over 100 years ago, concluding its importance for cognitive processes.
• Carlyle Jacobsen and colleagues in 1935 showed the deleterious effect of prefrontal ablation on delayed response.
• The multicomponent model of working memory introduced in 1974 by Baddeley and Hitch contains the central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad.
• The central executive directs attention, suppresses irrelevant information, and coordinates cognitive processes.
• The phonological loop stores phonological information and prevents its decay, while the visuospatial sketchpad stores visual and spatial information.
• Baddeley extended the model in 2000 by adding the episodic buffer, integrating various types of information and linking working memory and long-term memory.
• Anders Ericsson and Walter Kintsch introduced the notion of "long-term working memory", where parts of long-term memory effectively function as working memory.
• Cowan does not regard working memory as separate from long-term memory, with representations in working memory being a subset of long-term memory representations.
• Cowan's model consists of long-term memory representations that are activated and a focus of attention with a limited capacity, holding up to four activated representations.
• Oberauer extended Cowan's model by adding a more narrow focus of attention that holds only one chunk at a time.
• Working memory is widely acknowledged to have limited capacity, with early quantification of the capacity limit associated with short-term memory being the "magical number seven" suggested by Miller in 1956.
• Cowan proposed that working memory has a capacity of about four chunks in young adults, and fewer in children and old adults.

Neural Basis and Theories of Working Memory

• Hitzig and Ferrier conducted ablation experiments on the prefrontal cortex over 100 years ago, concluding its importance for cognitive processes.
• Carlyle Jacobsen and colleagues in 1935 showed the deleterious effect of prefrontal ablation on delayed response.
• The multicomponent model of working memory introduced in 1974 by Baddeley and Hitch contains the central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad.
• The central executive directs attention, suppresses irrelevant information, and coordinates cognitive processes.
• The phonological loop stores phonological information and prevents its decay, while the visuospatial sketchpad stores visual and spatial information.
• Baddeley extended the model in 2000 by adding the episodic buffer, integrating various types of information and linking working memory and long-term memory.
• Anders Ericsson and Walter Kintsch introduced the notion of "long-term working memory", where parts of long-term memory effectively function as working memory.
• Cowan does not regard working memory as separate from long-term memory, with representations in working memory being a subset of long-term memory representations.
• Cowan's model consists of long-term memory representations that are activated and a focus of attention with a limited capacity, holding up to four activated representations.
• Oberauer extended Cowan's model by adding a more narrow focus of attention that holds only one chunk at a time.
• Working memory is widely acknowledged to have limited capacity, with early quantification of the capacity limit associated with short-term memory being the "magical number seven" suggested by Miller in 1956.
• Cowan proposed that working memory has a capacity of about four chunks in young adults, and fewer in children and old adults.

Test your knowledge about the neural basis and key theories of working memory, including the multicomponent model by Baddeley and Hitch, the role of prefrontal cortex, and different viewpoints on working memory capacity.