Working Memory Capacity (Essays in Cognitive Psychology) [Hardcover]

Nelson Cowan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2005 | ISBN-10: 184169097X | ISBN-13: 978-1841690971 | Edition: 1

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is an excellent and timely manuscript that I would expect to be widely read by cognitive psychologists with an interest in working memory and attention. It addresses a classic issue, namely the question of whether short-term memory has a limited capacity...presents a clear and balanced view of the field..." -- Alan Baddeley, University of York

"This is an excellent book, bringing a wealth of knowledge to bear to make the case for a daring hypothesis that will have a large impact on the study of working memory and our understanding of human cognitive abilities." -- Klaus Oberauer, University of Bristol

"Cowan demonstrates a scholarly mastery of his subject and includes a broad range of evidence from other fields." -- Victor Colotla, in PsycCRITIQUES August 2006

About the Author

Nelson Cowan is currently Professor of Psychology, University of Missouri. His research specializations include short-term or working memory, childhood development of short-term and working memory, and the relationship between working memory and selective attention. Nelson edited a book for Psychology Press on the Development of Memory in Childhood (1997) and is currently an Associate Editor on our journal, the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Section A.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Psychology Press; 1 edition (September 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184169097X
• ISBN-13: 978-1841690971
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #940,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exzellent. However, a measure of storage capacity is lacking., February 16, 2006

By 

Volkmar Weiss - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Working Memory Capacity (Essays in Cognitive Psychology) (Hardcover)

Ever since attention became the object of scientific study, psychologists have recognised that it possesses a quantitative dimension in terms of the maximum number of items to which a person can attend at one time. It now seems almost universally accepted that short-term working memory of healthy adults has a capacity limit of about seven plus or minus two. The possibility that such quantitative limits on attention span might be related to qualitative differences in thought and reasoning was recognised by Piaget in his earliest research reports. He suggested that increases in attention span took a leading role with respect to cognitive development insofar as the logical form of children`s reasoning was conditioned by their working memory capacity.
In the past decades the advent of cognitive psychology and information processing theories provided a new stimulus for theories regarding the nature and consequences of limitations in working memory capacity. Although such limits were often located in "short-term memory" or "working memory", a close relation between memory and attention was recognised in many models of human information processing. The possibility that such processing limitations might constrain human reasoning and problem solving was acknowledged by several authors, and Cowan's monograph provides a very good and critical review of the current state of the art. Also the reader, who is interested in the field since decades, will find discussions of entirely new or long forgotten but very useful findings.
It is only a pity that the author has overlooked the theory and results of the Erlangen school of information psychology. As we know, working memory capacity can be tested by a variety of tasks. The most popular measure is a dual-task paradigm combining a memory span measure with a concurrent processing task. In such a way the school of information psychology is measuring mental power, or the capacity C of working memory (measured in bits of information), as the product of the individual mental speed Ck of information processing (in bit/s; operationalized by testing the reading rate of single letters) , and the duration time D (in s) of information in working memory, meaning the duration of memory span. Hence:
C (bit) = Ck(bit/s) × D (s).
Within this theoretical framework even the effects of the general intelligence factor can be understood as the channel capacity of working memory.