The Time-Based Resource-Sharing Model of Working Memory

The time-based resource-sharing model considers working memory as the workspace in which mental representations are built, maintained, and transformed for completing goal-oriented tasks. Its main component is made of an episodic buffer and a procedural system that form an executive loop in which processing and storage share domain-general attentional resources on a temporal basis. Because working memory representations decay with time when attention is diverted, the cognitive load of a given activity is the proportion of time during which it occupies attention and prevents it from counteracting this decay through attentional refreshing. Consequently, recall in working memory tasks is an inverse function of the cognitive load of concurrent processing. Besides this system, an independent domain-specific maintenance system exists for verbal, but not visuospatial, information. Within this framework, working memory development mainly results from increasing processing speed that affects both the duration of the distraction of attention by concurrent tasks and refreshing efficiency.

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Working Memory Capacity

Proceedings of the Human Factors Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193128603001307 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 30 (13) ◽

pp. 1273-1277 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Marilyn L. Turner ◽

Randall W. Engle

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Reading Comprehension ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Functional Model ◽

Limited Capacity ◽

Concurrent Processing ◽

Two Measures ◽

Processing And Storage ◽

And Storage

Recent researchers have attempted to correlate measures of working memory (WM) with measures of higher level cognitive skills and abilities focusing on the functions of this limited capacity system, i.e., processing and storage. Relationships between three span measures of the functional model of WM capacity and two measures of reading comprehension were investigated. The magnitude of the correlations found between reading comprehension and the two spans embedded in reading processing tasks was similar to that of the correlation found between a third span measure embedded in a quantitative task with reading comprehension. These results indicated that these span measures of WM capacity were independent of the nature of the concurrent processing task.

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Effect of Cognitive Load on Working Memory Forgetting in Aging

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000158 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 59 (6) ◽

pp. 311-321 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Christine Baumans ◽

Stephane Adam ◽

Xavier Seron

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Cognitive Load ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Resource Sharing ◽

Presentation Rate ◽

Aging Effect ◽

The Elderly ◽

Time Constraints ◽

The Difference ◽

Processing Mechanisms

Functional approaches to working memory (WM) have been proposed recently to better investigate “maintenance” and “processing” mechanisms. The cognitive load (CL) hypothesis presented in the “Time-Based Resource-Sharing” model (Barrouillet & Camos, 2007) suggests that forgetting from WM (maintenance) can be investigated by varying the presentation rate and processing speed (processing). In this study, young and elderly participants were compared on WM tasks in which the difference in processing speed was controlled by CL manipulations. Two main results were found. First, when time constraints (CL) were matched for the two groups, no aging effect was observed. Second, whereas a large variation in CL affected WM performance, a small CL manipulation had no effect on the elderly. This suggests that WM forgetting cannot be completely accounted for by the CL hypothesis. Rather, it highlights the need to explore restoration times in particular, and the nature of the refreshment mechanisms within maintenance.

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Working memory and developmental language impairments

Child Language Teaching and Therapy ◽

10.1177/0265659016655378 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 19-32 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Lucy A Henry ◽

Nicola Botting

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Research Evidence ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Language Impairments ◽

Convincing Evidence ◽

Short Term ◽

Concurrent Processing ◽

Processing And Storage ◽

And Storage ◽

Working Memory Model

Children with developmental language impairments (DLI) are often reported to show difficulties with working memory. This review describes the four components of the well-established working memory model, and considers whether there is convincing evidence for difficulties within each component in children with DLI. The emphasis is on the most demanding form of working memory that draws on central executive (CE) resources, requiring concurrent processing and storage of information. An evaluation of recent research evidence suggests that, not only are children with DLI impaired on verbal CE measures, but they also show difficulties on non-verbal CE tasks that cannot be assumed to tap language. Therefore, it seems increasingly likely that children with DLI show domain-general CE impairments, along with their more established impairments in verbal short-term memory. Implications for potential working memory interventions and classroom learning are discussed.

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