Models of Working Memory: Mechanisms of Active Maintenance and Executive Control

Working memory is currently a hot topic in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Because of their radically different scopes and emphases, however, comparing different models and theories and understanding how they relate to one another has been a difficult task. This volume offers a much-needed forum for systematically comparing and contrasting existing models of working memory. It does so by asking each contributor to address the same comprehensive set of important theoretical questions on working memory. The answers to these questions provided in the volume elucidate the emerging general consensus on the nature of working memory among different theorists and crystallize incompatible theoretical claims that must be resolved in future research. As such, this volume serves not only as a milestone that documents the state-of-the-art in the field but also as a theoretical guidebook that will likely promote new lines of research and more precise and comprehensive models of working memory.

• The book covers a wide range of theoretical perspectives with strikingly different scopes and emphasis • This volume includes virtually all influential models and theories of working memory that have been guiding research in the field • Each chapter addresses the same set of questions and theoretical issues, and can be cross-referenced with other chapters

‘The theories are highly diverse in content and terminology … The book is recommended for anyone who strives to remain current in the neurosciences … provides an innovative strategy for comparing theory that can be emulated in other areas … it will stimulate advanced conceptualization of brain functioning.’ Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society