Variation in Working Memory

Andrew Conway · Chris Jarrold · Michael Kane · Akira Miyake · John Towse

shk 2008 · Oxford University Press

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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.

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Andrew R. A. Conway is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Princeton University, where he teaches quantitative methods for psychological research. He earned his B.S. in Computer Science and Psychology at Union College and his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at the University of South Carolina. He is Consulting Editor for Memory & Cognition and the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition. Christopher Jarrold is a Reader in the Department of Experimental Psychology at University of Bristol. He is a developmental psychologist with a particular interest in working memory functions in typically and atypically developing children. In 2000 he received the British Psychological Society's Neil O'Connor Award for research into developmental disabilities. He is an Associate Editor for Developmental Science and Consulting Editor for the Journal of Intellectual Disability Research. Michael J. Kane is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He earned is B.A. in Psychology from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in Psychology from Duke University. He is Associate Editor for Memory & Cognition, and a Consulting Editor for the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Akira Miyake is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and American Psychological Society. He is Associate Editor for the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. He is co-editor, with Ptiti Shah, of the highly regarded volume, Models of Working Memory, as well as The Handbook of Visuospatial Thinking. John N. Towse is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Lancaster. After studying at Oxford University and Manchester, he worked as a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at Royal Holloway University of London. He is a former Secretary of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology and is currently Associate Editor for the British Journal of Developmental Psychology.