Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T01:33:47.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

21 - Working Memory and Intelligence

from Part V - Intelligence and Information Processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2019

By
Andrew R. A. Conway  and
Kristof Kovacs
Edited by
Robert J. Sternberg
Robert J. Sternberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Get access

Summary

Working memory is a system that allows for the maintenance of goal-relevant information in the face of concurrent processing and/or distraction. Working memory plays a role in many real-world cognitive tasks such as reading, reasoning, planning, and problem-solving. It consists of multiple components, including domain-general mechanisms associated with attention control and domain-specific processes associated with short-term storage. It is also a limited capacity system and working memory capacity is highly correlated with general fluid intelligence. This chapter provides a review of cognitive models of working memory, the measurement of working memory capacity, and evidence linking working memory capacity and intelligence. Several theoretical frameworks, such as executive attention theory and process overlap theory, are also discussed.

Keywords

working memoryexecutive attentionfluid intelligencemulticomponent modelprocess overlap theorysampling modelpositive manifoldg factor
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence , pp. 504 - 527
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackerman, P. L. (1988). Determinants of individual differences during skill acquisition: Cognitive abilities and information processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 117, 288–318.Google Scholar
Ackerman, P. L., Beier, M. E., & Boyle, M. O. (2002). Individual differences in working memory within a nomological network of cognitive and perceptual speed abilities. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131, 567–589.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, J. R. (1983). The architecture of cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Aron, A. R., Robbins, T. W., & Poldrack, R. A. (2004). Inhibition and the right inferior frontal cortex. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 170–177.Google Scholar
Ashby, F. G., Ell, S. W., Valentin, V. V., & Casale, M. B. (2005). FROST: A distributed neurocomputational model of working memory maintenance. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 1728–1743.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In Spence, K. W. & Spence, J. T. (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation (vol. 2, pp. 89–195). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1971). The control of short-term memory. Scientific American, 225, 82–90.Google Scholar
Awh, E., Fukuda, K., Vogel, E. K., & Mayr, U. (2009). Quantity not quality: The relationship between fluid intelligence and working memory capacity. Paper presented at the fiftieth annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Boston, November.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. In Bower, G. A. (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (vol. 8, pp. 47–89). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bartholomew, D. J., Deary, I. J., & Lawn, M. (2009). A new lease of life for Thomson’s bonds model of intelligence. Psychological Review, 116(3), 567–579. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0016262Google Scholar
Bayliss, D. M., Jarrold, C., Gunn, D. M., & Baddeley, A. D. (2003). The complexities of complex span: Explaining individual differences in working memory in children and adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 132, 71–92.Google Scholar
Binet, A. (1903). Etude expérimentale de l’intelligence (The experimental study of intelligence). Paris: Schlecher.Google Scholar
Botvinick, M. (2007). Conflict monitoring and decision making: Reconciling two perspectives on anterior cingulate function. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 7, 356–366.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Botvinick, M. M., Braver, T. S., Barch, D. M., Carter, C. S., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). Conflict monitoring and cognitive control. Psychological Review, 108, 624–652.Google Scholar
Bunge, S. A., Klingberg, T., Jacobsen, R. B., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2000). A resource model of the neural basis of executive working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97, 3573–3578.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bunting, M. F. (2006). Proactive interference and item similarity in working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32, 183–196.Google ScholarPubMed
Burgess, G. C., Braver, T. S., Conway, A. R. A., & Gray, J. R. (2011). Neural mechanisms of interference control underlie the relationship between fluid intelligence and working memory span. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140, 674–692.Google Scholar
Case, R., Kurland, M. D., & Goldberg, J. (1982). Operational efficiency and the growth of short-term memory span. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 33, 386–404.Google Scholar
Chein, J. M., Moore, A. B., & Conway, A. R. A. (2011). Domain-general mechanisms of active maintenance and serial recall in complex working memory span. Neuroimage, 54, 550–559.Google Scholar
Chuah, Y. M. L., & Maybery, M. T. (1999). Verbal and spatial short-term memory: Common sources of developmental change? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 73, 7–44.Google Scholar
Colom, R., Rebollo, I., Palacios, A., Juan-Espinosa, M., & Kyllonen, P. C. (2004). Working memory is (almost) perfectly predicted by g. Intelligence, 32, 277–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway, A. R. A., Cowan, N., Bunting, M. F., Therriault, D., & Minkoff, S. (2002). A latent variable analysis of working memory capacity, short term memory capacity, processing speed, and general fluid intelligence. Intelligence, 30, 163–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway, A. R. A., Kane, M. J., Bunting, M. F., Hambrick, D. Z., Wilhelm, O., & Engle, R. W. (2005). Working memory span tasks: A methodological review and user’s guide. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 12(5), 769–786.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (1988). Evolving conceptions of memory storage, selective attention, and their mutual constraints within the human information processing system. Psychological Bulletin, 104, 163–191.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (1995). Attention and memory: An integrated framework. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (2001). The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 87–185.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (2005). Working memory capacity. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Cowan, N., Elliott, E. M., Saults, J. S., Morey, C. C., Mattox, S., Hismjatullina, A., et al. (2005). On the capacity of attention: Its estimation and its role in working memory and cognitive aptitudes. Cognitive Psychology, 51(1), 42–100.Google Scholar
Cowan, N., Fristoe, N. M., Elliott, E. M., Brunner, R. P., & Saults, J. S. (2006). Scope of attention, control of attention, and intelligence in children and adults. Memory and Cognition, 34, 1754–1768.Google Scholar
Crowder, R. G. (1982). The demise of short-term memory. Acta Psychologica, 50, 291–323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dahlin, E., Bäckman, L., Neely, A. S., & Nyberg, L. (2009). Training of the executive component of working memory: Subcortical areas mediate transfer effects. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 27(5), 405–419.Google Scholar
Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Behavior and Verbal Learning, 19, 450–466.Google Scholar
Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. A. (1983). Individual differences in integrating information between and within sentences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 9, 561–584.Google Scholar
Daneman, M., & Merikle, P. M. (1996). Working memory and language comprehension: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 3, 422–433.Google Scholar
Davelaar, E. J., Goshen-Gottstein, Y., Ashkenazi, A., Haarmann, H. J., & Usher, M. (2005). The demise of short-term memory revisited: Empirical and computational investigations of recency effects. Psychological Review, 112, 3–42.Google Scholar
Dempster, F. N., & Corkill, A. J. (1999). Interference and inhibition in cognition and behavior: Unifying themes for educational psychology. Educational Psychology Review, 11, 1–88.Google Scholar
Drew, T., & Vogel, E. K. (2009). Working memory capacity limitations. In Squire, L. R. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of neuroscience (vol. 10, pp. 523–531). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Dunlosky, J., & Kane, M. J. (2007). The contributions of strategy use to working memory span: A comparison of strategy-assessment methods. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 1227–1245.Google Scholar
Engle, R. W., & Kane, M. J. (2004). Executive attention, working memory capacity, and a two-factor theory of cognitive control. In Ross, B. (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (pp. 145–199). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Engle, R. W., Tuholski, S. W., Laughlin, J. E., & Conway, A. R. A. (1999). Working memory, short-term memory and general fluid intelligence: A latent variable approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 128, 309–331.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ericsson, K. A., & Kintsch, W. (1995). Long-term working memory. Psychological Review, 102(2), 211–245.Google Scholar
Frank, M. J., Loughry, B., & O’Reilly, R. C. (2001). Interactions between the frontal cortex and basal ganglia in working memory: A computational model. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 1, 137–160.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garavan, H. (1998). Serial attention within working memory. Memory and Cognition, 26, 263–276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gignac, G. E. (2014). Fluid intelligence shares closer to 60% of its variance with working memory capacity and is a better indicator of general intelligence. Intelligence, 47, 122–133. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2014.09.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J. R., Chabris, C. F., & Braver, T. S. (2003). Neural mechanisms of general fluid intelligence. Nature Neuroscience, 6, 316–322.Google Scholar
Hambrick, D. Z. (2003). Why are some people more knowledgeable than others? A longitudinal study of real-world knowledge acquisition. Memory & Cognition, 31, 902–917.Google Scholar
Hambrick, D. Z., & Engle, R. W. (2002). Effects of domain knowledge, working memory capacity, and age on cognitive performance: An investigation of the knowledge-is-power hypothesis. Cognitive Psychology, 44, 339–387.Google Scholar
Hambrick, D. Z., & Meinz, E. J. (2011). Limits on the predictive power of domain-specific experience and knowledge in skilled performance. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(5), 275–279. http://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411422061CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hambrick, D. Z., & Oswald, F. L. (2005). Does domain knowledge moderate involvement of working memory capacity in higher-level cognition? A test of three models. Journal of Memory and Language, 52, 377–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hebb, D. O. (1949). Organization of behavior. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Jonides, J., Lewis, R. L., Nee, D. E., Lustig, C. A., Berman, M. G., & Moore, K. S. (2008). The mind and brain of short-term memory. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 193–224.Google Scholar
Kane, M. J., Conway, A. R. A., Miura, T. K., & Colflesh, G. J. H. (2007). Working memory, attention control, and the n-back task: A question of construct validity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33, 615–622.Google Scholar
Kane, M. J., & Engle, R. W. (2002). The role of prefrontal cortex in working-memory capacity, executive attention, and general fluid intelligence: An individual-differences perspective. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 9, 637–671.Google Scholar
Kane, M. J., Hambrick, D. Z., & Conway, A. R. A. (2005). Working memory capacity and fluid intelligence are strongly related constructs: Comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005). Psychological Bulletin, 131, 66–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kane, M. J., Hambrick, D. Z., Tuholski, S. W., Wilhelm, O., Payne, T. W., & Engle, R. W. (2004). The generality of working memory capacity: A latent-variable approach to verbal and visuospatial memory span and reasoning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 189–217.Google Scholar
Karbach, J., & Kray, J. (2009). How useful is executive control training? Age differences in near and far transfer of task-switching training. Developmental Science, 12(6), 976–990.Google Scholar
Kondo, H., Morishita, M., Osaka, N., Osaka, M., Fukuyama, H., & Shibasaki, H. (2004). Functional roles of the cingulo-frontal network in performance on working memory. Neuroimage, 21, 2–14.Google Scholar
Kovacs, K., & Conway, A. R. A. (2016). Process overlap theory: A unified account of the general factor of intelligence. Psychological Inquiry, 27(3). http://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2016.1153946CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kyllonen, P. C., & Christal, R. E. (1990). Reasoning ability is (little more than) working-memory capacity?! Intelligence, 14, 389–433.Google Scholar
Luck, S. J., & Vogel, E. K. (1997). The capacity of visual working memory for features and conjunctions. Nature, 390, 279–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mackintosh, N. J., & Bennett, E. S. (2003). The fractionation of working memory maps onto different components of intelligence. Intelligence, 31, 519–531.Google Scholar
McGrew, K. S. (2009). CHC theory and the human cognitive abilities project: Standing on the shoulders of the giants of psychometric intelligence research. Intelligence, 37(1), 1–10. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2008.08.004Google Scholar
McElree, B. (2001). Working memory and focal attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 27, 817–835.Google Scholar
McNamara, D. S., & Scott, J. L. (2001). Working memory capacity and strategy use. Memory and Cognition, 29, 10–17.Google Scholar
Miller, E. K., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24, 167–202.Google Scholar
Miller, G. A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K. H. (1960). Plans and the structure of behavior. New York: Holt.Google Scholar
Miyake, A., Friedman, N. P., Rettinger, D. A., Shah, P., & Hegarty, M. (2001). How are visuospatial working memory, executive functioning, and spatial abilities related? A latent variable analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 621–640.Google Scholar
Mukunda, K. V., & Hall, V. C. (1992). Does performance on memory for order correlate with performance on standardized measures of ability? A meta-analysis. Intelligence, 16, 81–97.Google Scholar
Nee, D. E., & Jonides, J. (2008). Neural correlates of access to short-term memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, 14228–14233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oberauer, K. (2002). Access to information in working memory: Exploring the focus of attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 2002, 28, 411–421.Google Scholar
Oberauer, K., Lewandowsky, S., Farrell, S., Jarrold, C., & Greaves, M. (2012). Modeling working memory: An interference model of complex span. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 19(5), 779–819. http://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-012-0272-4Google Scholar
Oberauer, K., Schulze, R., Wilhelm, O., & Süß, H. M. (2005). Working memory and intelligence – their correlation and their relation: A comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005). Psychological Bulletin, 131, 61–65.Google Scholar
Oberauer, K., Süß, H. M., Wilhelm, O., & Wittman, W. W. (2003). The multiple faces of working memory: Storage, processing, supervision, and coordination. Intelligence, 31, 167–193.Google Scholar
O’Reilly, R. C., & Frank, M. J. (2006). Making working memory work: A computational model of learning in the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia. Neural Computation, 18, 283–328.Google Scholar
O’Reilly, R. C., & Norman, K. A. (2002). Hippocampal and neocortical contributions to memory: Advances in the complementary learning systems framework. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6(12), 505–510.Google Scholar
Osaka, M., Osaka, N., Kondo, H., Morishita, M., Fukuyama, H., Aso, T., et al. (2003). The neural basis of individual differences in working memory capacity: An fMRI study. Neuroimage, 18, 789–797.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Osaka, N., Osaka, M., Kondo, H., Morishita, M., Fukuyama, H., & Shibasaki, H. (2004). The neural basis of executive function in working memory: An fMRI study based on individual differences. Neuroimage, 21, 623–631.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pollack, I., Johnson, I. B., & Knaff, P. R. (1959). Running memory span. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57, 137–146.Google Scholar
Postle, B. R. (2006). Working memory as an emergent property of the mind and brain. Neuroscience, 139, 23–38.Google Scholar
Ranganath, C. (2006). Working memory for visual objects: Complementary roles of inferior temporal, medial temporal, and prefrontal cortex. Neuroscience, 139(1), 277–289.Google Scholar
Sederberg, P. B., Howard, M. W., & Kahana, M. J. (2008). A context-based theory of recency and contiguity in free recall. Psychological Review, 115, 893–912.Google Scholar
Shah, P., & Miyake, A. (1996). The separability of working memory resources for spatial thinking and language processing: An individual differences approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 125, 4–27.Google Scholar
Shallice, T., & Warrington, E. K. (1970). Independent functioning of verbal memory stores: A neuropsychological study. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 22, 261–273.Google Scholar
Smith, E. E., Geva, A., Jonides, J., Miller, A., Reuter-Lorenz, P., & Koeppe, R. A. (2001). The neural basis of task-switching in working memory: Effects of performance and aging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98, 2095–2100.Google Scholar
Süß, H. M., Oberauer, K., Wittman, W. W., Wilhelm, O., & Schulze, R. (2002). Working memory capacity explains reasoning ability – and a little bit more. Intelligence, 30, 261–288.Google Scholar
Thompson, G. (1916). A hierarchy without a general factor. British Journal of Psychology, 8, 271–281.Google Scholar
Thorndike, E. L. (1927). The measurement of intelligence. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.Google Scholar
Todd, J. J., & Marois, R. (2004). Capacity limit of visual short-term memory in human posterior parietal cortex. Nature, 428, 751–754.Google Scholar
Turley-Ames, K. J., & Whitfield, M. M. (2003). Strategy training and working memory task performance. Journal of Memory and Language, 49, 446–468.Google Scholar
Turner, M. L., & Engle, R. W. (1989). Is working memory capacity task dependent? Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 127–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Unsworth, N., & Engle, R. W. (2006a). Simple and complex memory spans and their relation to fluid abilities: Evidence from list-length effects. Journal of Memory and Language, 54, 68–80.Google Scholar
Unsworth, N., & Engle, R. W. (2006b). A temporal-contextual retrieval account of complex span: An analysis of errors. Journal of Memory and Language, 54, 346–362.Google Scholar
Unsworth, N., & Engle, R. W. (2007). The nature of individual differences in working memory capacity: Active maintenance in primary memory and controlled search from secondary memory. Psychological Review, 114, 104–132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Unsworth, N., Spillers, G. J., & Brewer, A. (2010). The contributions of primary and secondary memory to working memory capacity: An individual differences analysis of immediate free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36, 240–247.Google Scholar
Vogel, E. K., & Machizawa, M. G. (2004). Neural activity predicts individual differences in visual working memory capacity. Nature, 428, 784–775.Google Scholar
Warrington, E. K., & Shallice, T. (1969). The selective impairment of auditory verbal short-term memory. Brain, 92, 885–896.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×