Two Dissociable Updating Processes in Working Memory

The authors show that the updating of working memory (WM) representations is carried out by the cooperative act of 2 dissociable reaction time (RT) components: a global updating process that provides stability by shielding WM contents against interference and a local process that provides flexibilit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition memory, and cognition, 2008-11, Vol.34 (6), p.1339-1348
Main Authors: Kessler, Yoav, Meiran, Nachshon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attention
Biological and medical sciences
Cognitive Processes
Experimental Psychology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Information processing
Learning. Memory
Male
Memory
Memory, Short-Term
Orientation
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Proactive Inhibition
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Serial Learning
Short Term Memory
Task Analysis
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Summary:The authors show that the updating of working memory (WM) representations is carried out by the cooperative act of 2 dissociable reaction time (RT) components: a global updating process that provides stability by shielding WM contents against interference and a local process that provides flexibility. Participants kept track of 1-3 items (digits or Gibson figures). In each trial, the items either were similar to those in the previous trial or were different in any or all of the items. Experiments 1 and 2 established the existence of 2 independent RT components representing the 2 updating processes. Global updating cost was sensitive to total number of items in WM (set size), regardless of the number of items that actually were modified. Local updating cost was sensitive to the number of modified items, regardless of the set size. Experiment 3 showed that participants had to dismantle the representation formed by previous global updating in order to carry out new updating.
ISSN:0278-7393
1939-1285
DOI:10.1037/a0013078