Download or read book Working Memory Capacity written by Nelson Cowan and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2016-04-14 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of one's memory "filling up" is a humorous misconception of how memory in general is thought to work; it 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. This 10th anniversary Classic Edition will continue to be accessible to a wide range of readers and serve as an invaluable reference for all memory researchers.

Download or read book Implicit and Explicit Mental Processes written by Kim Kirsner and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The need for synthesis in the domain of implicit processes was the motivation behind this book. Two major questions sparked its development: Is there one implicit process or processing principle, or are there many? Are implicit memory, learning, and expertise; skill acquisition; and automatic detection simply different facets of one general principle or process, or are they distinct processes performing very different functions? This book has been designed to cast light on this issue. Because it is impossible to make sense of implicit processes without taking into account their explicit counterparts, consideration is also given to explicit memory, learning, and expertise; and controlled processing. The chapter authors consider principles, processes, and models which stand above a wealth of data collected to evaluate models designed specifically to account for data from a specific paradigm, or even more narrowly, from a specific experimental task. The motivation behind this approach is the proposition that modeling is possible for a much broader data domain, even though there may be some cost where specific tasks are concerned. The aim of this book is to treat synthesis as the objective, and to approach this objective by collecting and discussing phenomena which--although they are drawn from diverse areas of psychological science--touch a single issue concerning the distinction between explicit and implicit processes.

Download or read book Student Learning in German Higher Education written by Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-02-15 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a comprehensive overview of current, innovative approaches to assessing domain-specific and generic student learning and learning outcomes in higher education. The presented work from all projects of the KoKoHs program, the most significant research initiative in German higher education since 2011, describes established tools and empirical results.

Download or read book The Role of Working Memory and Executive Function in Communication under Adverse Conditions written by Mary Rudner and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2016-06-20 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communication is vital for social participation. However, communication often takes place under suboptimal conditions. This makes communication harder and less reliable, leading at worst to social isolation. In order to promote participation, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms underlying communication in different situations. Human communication is often speech based, either oral or written, but may also involve gesture, either accompanying speech or in the form of sign language. For communication to be achieved, a signal generated by one person has to be perceived by another person, attended to, comprehended and responded to. This process may be hindered by adverse conditions including factors that may be internal to the sender (e.g. incomplete or idiosyncratic language production), occur during transmission (e.g. background noise or signal processing) or be internal to the receiver (e.g. poor grasp of the language or sensory impairment). The extent to which these factors interact to generate adverse conditions may differ across the lifespan. Recent work has shown that successful speech communication under adverse conditions is associated with good cognitive capacity including efficient working memory and executive abilities such as updating and inhibition. Further, frontoparietal networks associated with working memory and executive function have been shown to be activated to a greater degree when it is harder to achieve speech comprehension. To date, less work has focused on sign language communication under adverse conditions or the role of gestures accompanying speech communication under adverse conditions. It has been proposed that the role of working memory in communication under such conditions is to keep fragments of an incomplete signal in mind, updating them as appropriate and inhibiting irrelevant information, until an adequate match can be achieved with lexical and semantic representations held in long term memory. Recent models of working memory highlight an episodic buffer whose role is the multimodal integration of information from the senses and long term memory. It is likely that the episodic buffer plays a key role in communication under adverse conditions. The aim of this research topic is to draw together multiple perspectives on communication under adverse conditions including empirical and theoretical approaches. This will facilitate a scientific exchange among individual scientists and groups studying different aspects of communication under adverse conditions and/or the role of cognition in communication. As such, this topic belongs firmly within the field of Cognitive Hearing Science. Exchange of ideas among scientists with different perspectives on these issues will allow researchers to identify and highlight the way in which different internal and external factors interact to make communication in different modalities more or less successful across the lifespan. Such exchange is the forerunner of broader dissemination of results which ultimately, may make it possible to take measures to reduce adverse conditions, thus facilitating communication. Such measures might be implemented in relation to the built environment, the design of hearing aids and public awareness.

Download or read book Working Memory and Academic Learning written by Milton J. Dehn and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Equipping school and child psychologists, and neuropsychologists with critical information on the role of working memory in learning and achievement, Working Memory and Academic Learning offers guidance on assessment tools, interventions, and current evidence-based best practices. Its specific, step-by-step guidance and hands-on case studies enables you to identify how working memory relates to academic attainment and how to apply this knowledge in professional practice.

Download or read book Variation in Working Memory written by Andrew Conway and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-02-13 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Handbook of Reading Interventions written by Rollanda E. O'Connor and published by Guilford Press. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comprehensive, authoritative, and designed for practical utility, this handbook presents evidence-based approaches for helping struggling readers and those at risk for literacy difficulties or delays. Leading experts explain how current research on all aspects of literacy translates into innovative classroom practices. Chapters include clear descriptions of effective interventions for word recognition, spelling, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing, complete with concrete examples and teaching scripts. Coverage also encompasses preschool literacy instruction and interventions for older readers, English language learners, and students with learning disabilities, as well as peer-mediated and tutoring approaches.

Download or read book Working Memory and Language written by Susan E. Gathercole and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book evaluates the involvement of working memory in five central aspects of language processing: vocabulary acquisition, speech production, reading development, skilled reading, and comprehension. The authors draw upon experimental, neuropsychological and developmental evidence in a wide-ranging evaluation of the contribution of two components of working memory to each aspect of language. The two components are the phonological loop, which is specialised for the processing and maintenance of verbal material, and the general-purpose processing system of the central executive. A full introduction to the application of the working memory model to normal adults, neuropsychological patients and children is provided in the two opening chapters. Non-experts within this area will find these chapters particularly useful in providing a clear statement of the current theoretical and empirical status of the working memory model. Each of the following chapters examines the involvement of working memory in one specialised aspect of language processing, in each case integrating the available experimental, neuropsychological and developmental evidence. The book will therefore be of direct relevance to researchers interested in both language processing and memory. Working Memory and Language is unique in that it draws together findings from normal adults, brain-damaged patients, and children. For each of these populations, working memory involvement in language processing ranging from the speech production to comprehension are evaluated. Working Memory and Language provides a comprehensive analysis of just what roles working memory does play in the processing of language.

Download or read book Automaticity and Control in Language Processing written by Antje Meyer and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2007-01-24 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addresses key issues concerning the relationship between linguistic and non-linguistic processes, which will be of great interest to researchers and students in the area of language processing.

Download or read book Fundamentals of Cognition written by Michael W. Eysenck and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-09-12 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is it possible to learn something without being aware of it? How does emotion influence the way we think? How can we improve our memory? Fundamentals of Cognition, Fourth Edition, provides a basic, reader-friendly introduction to the key cognitive processes we use to interact successfully with the world around us. Our abilities in attention, perception, learning, memory, language, problem solving, thinking, and reasoning are all vitally important in enabling us to cope with everyday life. Understanding these processes through the study of cognitive psychology is essential for understanding human behaviour. This edition has been thoroughly updated and revised with an emphasis on making it even more accessible to introductory-level students. This new edition includes: updated references for readers who are looking for more detailed information; checks to make sure that statements made in the previous version are still valid, given recent findings on replication issues; extended research activities and "In the Real World" case studies to make it easy for students to engage with the material; real-world topics such as discussions of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, the reading problems of individuals with dyslexia, why magic tricks work, and why we cannot remember the Apple logo accurately; an extensive set of "Key term" definitions; supporting Instructor and Student Resources containing multiple choice questions, flashcards, simulations of key experiments, and instructor resources. The book provides a perfect balance between traditional approaches to cognition and cutting-edge cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neuropsychology. Covering all the key topics within cognition, this comprehensive overview is essential reading for all students interested in psychology.

Download or read book Control of Human Behavior Mental Processes and Consciousness written by Walter J. Perrig and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, an international group of leading scientists present perspectives on the control of human behavior, awareness, consciousness, and the meaning and function of perceived control or self-efficacy in people's lives. The book breaks down the barriers between subdisciplines, and thus constitutes an occasion to reflect on various facets of control in human life. Each expert reviews his or her field through the lens of perceived control and shows how these insights can be applied in practice.

Download or read book The Wiley Handbook on the Cognitive Neuroscience of Addiction written by Stephen J. Wilson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a thorough and up-to-date synthesis of the expansive and highly influential literature from the last 30 years by bringing together contributions from leading authorities in the field, with emphasis placed on the most commonly investigated drugs of abuse. Emphasises the most commonly investigated drugs of abuse, including alcohol, cocaine, nicotine, and opiates Brings together the work of the leading authorities in all major areas of the field Provides novel coverage of cutting-edge methods for using cognitive neuroscience to advance the treatment of addiction, including real-time neurofeedback and brain stimulation methods Includes new material on emerging themes and future directions in the use of cognitive neuroscience to advance addiction science

Download or read book Cognitive Pragmatics written by Marco Mazzone and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-01-22 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cognitive pragmatics is a mature field of research, characterized by robust theories and a growing amount of experimental work. In particular, Relevance Theory has provided a rich framework for research in the field. However, this theory makes a number of assumptions that are rooted in a modular view of cognition. This book provides a detailed analysis of such assumptions, arguing for an alternative model which has, however, some support in ideas explored by relevance theorists. First of all, inferences are explained in terms of associative pattern completion within associative networks, based on the schematic organization of memory. This explanation is shown to apply to a number of cognitive domains besides pragmatics, including mindreading. Moreover, such a view is compatible with a general understanding of the neurocomputational machinery of our cortex, suggesting a general argument to the effect that modularity in its standard version cannot be right. Second, the book argues for a crucial role of conscious attention in pragmatics as well as in most cognitive processes. In the end, what is proposed is not only a revision of Relevance Theory but also a fresh analysis of reasoning, which vindicates some Gricean intuitions.

Download or read book Improving Working Memory in Learning and Intellectual Disabilities written by Silvia Lanfranchi and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2016-08-05 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last forty years of research have demonstrated that working memory (WM) is a key concept for understanding higher-order cognition. To give an example, WM is involved in reading comprehension, problem solving and reasoning, but also in a number of everyday life activities. It has a clear role in the case of atypical development too. For instance, numerous studies have shown an impairment in WM in individuals with learning disabilities (LD) or intellectual disabilities (ID); and several researchers have hypothesized that this can be linked to their difficulties in learning, cognition and everyday life. The latest challenge in the field concerns the trainability of WM. If it is a construct central to our understanding of cognition in typical and atypical development, then specific intervention to sustain WM performance might also promote changes in cognitive processes associated with WM. The idea that WM can be modified is debated, however, partly because of the theoretical implications of this view, and partly due to the generally contradictory results obtained so far. In fact, most studies converge in demonstrating specific effects of WM training, i.e. improvements in the trained tasks, but few transfer effects to allied cognitive processes are generally reported. It is worth noting that any maintenance effects (when investigated) are even more meagre. In addition, a number of methodological concerns have been raised in relation to the use of: 1. single tasks to assess the effects of a training program; 2. WM tasks differing from those used in the training to assess the effects of WM training; and 3. passive control groups. These and other crucial issues have so far prevented any conclusions from being drawn on the efficacy of WM training. Bearing in mind that the opportunity to train WM could have a huge impact in the educational and clinical settings, it seems fundamentally important to shed more light on the limits and potential of this line of research. The aim of the research discussed here is to generate new evidence on the feasibility of training WM in individuals with LD and ID. There are several questions that could be raised in this field. For a start, can WM be trained in this population? Are there some aspects of WM that can be trained more easily than others? Can a WM training reduce the impact of LD and ID on learning outcomes, and on everyday living? What kind of training program is best suited to the promotion of such changes?

Download or read book Theoretical Models and Processes of Literacy written by Donna E. Alvermann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-03 with total page 893 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Seventh Edition of this foundational text represents the most comprehensive source available for connecting multiple and diverse theories to literacy research, broadly defined, and features both cutting-edge and classic contributions from top scholars. Two decades into the 21st century, the Seventh Edition finds itself at a crossroads and differs from its predecessors in three major ways: the more encompassing term literacy replaces reading in the title to reflect sweeping changes in how readers and writers communicate in a digital era; the focus is on conceptual essays rather than a mix of essays and research reports in earlier volumes; and most notably, contemporary literacy models and processes enhance and extend earlier theories of reading and writing. Providing a tapestry of models and theories that have informed literacy research and instruction over the years, this volume’s strong historical grounding serves as a springboard from which new perspectives are presented. The chapters in this volume have been selected to inspire the interrogation of literacy theory and to foster its further evolution. This edition is a landmark volume in which dynamic, dialogic, and generative relations of power speak directly to the present generation of literacy theorists and researchers without losing the historical contexts that preceded them. Some additional archival essays from previous editions are available on the book’s eResource. New to the Seventh Edition: Features chapters on emerging and contemporary theories that connect directly to issues of power and contrasts new models against more established counterparts. New chapters reflect sweeping changes in how readers and writers communicate in a digital era. Slimmer volume is complemented by some chapters from previous editions available online.

Download or read book Interaction Between Attention and Language Systems in Humans written by Ramesh Kumar Mishra and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-10-09 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This original volume examines the interface between attentional and linguistic processes in humans from the perspectives of psycholinguistics and cognitive science. It systematically explores how autonomy and automaticity are reflected during language processing in a variety of situations. A true, mechanistic explanation of how humans process language would require a complete understanding of the interface language has with important cognitive systems like attention, memory, as well as with vision. Interdisciplinary work in this area has so far not been able to generate a substantial theoretical position on this issue. This volume therefore looks at different language processing domains, such as speaking, listening, reading, as well as discourse and text processing, to evaluate the role attention plays in such performances; and also at how often linguistic inputs affect attentional processing. In this sense, it proposes that the attention--language interface is bidirectional. It also considers applied issues like language disorders, bilingualism and illiteracy, where the attention--language interface seems especially relevant as a theoretical apparatus for research investigations. Therefore, this volume brings closer theoretical explanations from the language sciences and cognitive sciences. It argues that language processing is multi-modal in its very essence and many conceptual structures in language evolve out of a complex interplay among participating cognitive systems such as attention and memory, supported by vision and audition.

Download or read book Modeling Individual Differences in Perceptual Decision Making written by Joseph W. Houpt and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2017-01-18 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To deal with the abundant amount of information in the environment in order to achieve our goals, human beings adopt a strategy to accumulate some information and filter out other information to ultimately make decisions. Since the development of cognitive science in the 1960s, researchers have been interested in understanding how human beings process and accumulate information for decision-making. Researchers have conducted extensive behavioral studies and applied a wide range of modeling tools to study human behavior in simple-detection tasks and two-choice decision tasks (e.g., discrimination, classification). In general, researchers often assume that the manner in which information is processed for decision-making is invariant across individuals given a particular experimental context. Independent variables, including speed-accuracy instructions, stimulus properties (i.e., intensity), and characteristics of the participants (i.e., aging, cognitive ability) are assumed to affect the parameters in a model (i.e., speed of information accumulation, response bias) but not the way that participants process information (e.g., the order of information processing). Given these assumptions, much modeling has been accomplished based on the grouped data, rather than the individual data. However, a growing number of studies have demonstrated that there were individual differences in the perceptual decision process. In the same task context, different groups of the participants may process information in different manners. The capacity and architecture of the decision mechanism were found to vary across individuals, implying that humans’ decision strategies can vary depending on the context to maximize their performance. In this special issue, we focused on a particular subset of cognitive models, particularly accumulator models, multinomial processing trees and systems factorial technology (SFT) as applied to perceptual decision making. The motivation for the focus on perceptual decision-making is threefold. Empirical studies of perception have grown out of a history of making a large number of observations for each individual so as to achieve precise estimates of each individual’s performance. This type of data, rather than a small number of observations per individual, is most amenable to achieving precision in individual-level and group-level cognitive modeling. Second, the interaction between the acquisition of perceptual information and the decisions based on that information (to the extent that those processes are distinguishable) offers rich data for scientific exploration. Finally, there is an increasing interest in the practical application of individual variation in perceptual ability, whether to inform perceptual training and expertise, or to guide personnel decisions. Although these practical applications are beyond the scope of this issue, we hope that the research presented herein may serve as the foundation for future endeavors in that domain.