Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:36:19.811Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Hidden operators of mental attention applying on LTM give the illusion of a separate working memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2005

Juan Pascual-Leone*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canadawww.psych.yorku.ca/people/faculty/pasleone.htm

Abstract:

The authors' results support a functionalist conception of working memory: a manifold repertoire of schemes/schemas (long-term memory) and a small set of general-purpose “hidden operators.” Using some of these operators I define mental (i.e., endogenous) attention. Then, analyzing two of the authors' unexplained important findings, I illustrate the mental-attention model's explanatory power. Multivariate methodology that varies developmental, task differences, and individual differences is recommended.

Type
Continuing Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

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.)

Footnotes

Commentary onDaniel S. Ruchkin, Jordan Grafman, Katherine Cameron, & Rita S. Berndt (2003). Working memory retention systems: A state of activated long-term memory. BBS 26(6):709–777.

References

Bakay, E. P., Marton, M., Rigo, P. & Balazs, L. (1998) Responses to irrelevant probes during task-induced negative and positive shifts. International Journal of Psychophysiology 28:248–61. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Case, R. (1998) The development of conceptual structures. In: Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 2, Cognition, perception and language, ed. Kuhn, D. & Siegler, R. S., pp. 745800. Wiley. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Goode, P. E., Goddard, P. H. & Pascual-Leone, J. (2002) Event-related potentials index cognitive style differences during serial-order recall task. International Journal of Psychophysiology 43:123–40. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Haarman, H. J. & Cameron, K. A. (in press) Active maintenance of sentence meaning in working memory: Evidence from EEG coherences. International Journal of Psychophysiology. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Halgren, E. (1993) Physiological integration of the declarative memory system. In: The memory system of the brain, ed. Delacour, J., pp. 69155. World Scientific. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Johnson, J., Fabian, V. & Pascual-Leone, J. (1989) Quantitative hardware stages that constrain language development. Human Development 32:245–71. [JP-L]Google Scholar
McCoy, R. (1972) Some temporal relations in visual processing. Unpublished Master's thesis, York University, Toronto. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Pascual-Leone, J. (1970) A mathematical model for the transition rule in Piaget's developmental stages. Acta Psychologica 32:301–45. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Pascual-Leone, J. (1987) Organismic processes for neoPiagetians theories: A dialectical causal account of cognitive development. International Journal of Psychology 22:531–70. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Pascual-Leone, J. (1995) Learning and development as dialectical factors in cognitive growth. Human Development 38:338–48. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Pascual-Leone, J. (1996) Vygotsky, Piaget, and the problems of Plato. Swiss Journal of Psychology 55:8492. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Pascual-Leone, J. (2000a) Reflections on working memory: Are the two models complementary? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 77:138–54. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Pascual-Leone, J. (2000b) If the magical number is 4, how does one account for operations within working memory? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24:136–38. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Pascual-Leone, J. & Baillargeon, R. (1994) Developmental measurement of mental attention. International Journal of Behavioral Development 17:161200. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Pascual-Leone, J. & Goodman, D. (1979) Intelligence and experience: A neoPiagetian approach. Instructional Science 8:301–67. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Pascual-Leone, J. & Johnson, J. (1991) The psychological unit and its role in task analysis: A reinterpretation of object permanence. In: Criteria for competence: Controversies in the conceptualization and assessment of children's abilities, ed. Chandler, M. & Chapman, M., pp. 153–87. Erlbaum. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Pascual-Leone, J. & Johnson, J. (2004) Affect, self-motivation, and cognitive development: A dialectical constructivist view. In: Motivation, emotion and cognition: Perspectives on intellectual development and functioning, ed. Dai, D. Y. & Sternberg, R. S., pp. 197235. Erlbaum. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Pascual-Leone, J., Johnson, J., Baskind, S., Dworsky, S. & Servertson, E. (2000) Culture-fair assessment and the processes of mental attention. In: Experience of mediated learning: An impact of Feuerstein's theory in education and psychology, ed. Kozulin, A. & Rand, Y., pp. 191214. Pergamon. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Rovkstroh, B., Cohen, R., Elbert, T., Muller, M. & Klein, C. (1997) The chronometrics or cortical excitation as explored with auditory probes. Journal of Psychophysiology 11:335–51. [JP-L]Google Scholar
Ruchkin, D. S., Grafman, J., Cameron, K. & Berndt, R. S. (2003) Working memory retention systems: A state of activated long-term memory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 26(6):709–28. [JP-L]Google Scholar