Working Memory: The state of the science

Working memory refers to how we keep track of what we are doing moment to moment throughout our waking lives. It allows us to remember what we have just done, focus on what we are doing now, to solve problems, be creative, think about what we will be doing in the next few seconds, and continually to update in our mind changes around us throughout the day.

This book brings together in one volume, state-of-the-science chapters written by the most productive and well known working memory researchers worldwide. Chapters cover different approaches to understanding how working memory works, using behavioural experimental techniques, neuroimaging, computational modelling, how it changes from childhood through to healthy old age, how it is affected by dementia and brain damage, and how it is used in everyday life.

A unique feature of the book is that each chapter starts with answers to a set of common questions for all authors. This allows readers very rapidly to compare key differences in theoretical assumptions and approaches to working memory across chapters, and to understand the theoretical context before going on to read each chapter in detail. Uniquely, all authors consider evidence that is not consistent with their theoretical assumptions, whereas it is common for authors to ignore contradictory evidence. This approach leads to new interpretations and new hypotheses to test in future research and greatly enhances our understanding of this crucial human ability.

Written and edited by the leading researchers in the field, the book will be an important and influential addition to the memory literature.

Robert Logie, Professor of Human Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh,Valerie Camos, Professor of Developmental Psychology, University of Fribourg,Nelson Cowan, Curators' Professor of Psychology, University of Missouri

Robert H Logie (PhD 1981, University College London, UK) is Professor of Human Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh, UK. His research has focused on human memory, especially working memory, across the adult lifespan in the healthy and damaged brain. He has published over 180 journal articles, 54 book chapters, and has authored or edited 19 books and special journal issues including the current volume. He is a former editor of Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, elected member (2012-2017) and chair (2015) of the Psychonomic Society, member (2009-2015) and chair (2015) of a European Research Council Advance Grants Panel, and currently is an Associate Editor for Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Edinburgh, the Royal Society of Arts, the British Psychological Society, and an Honorary Member of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology.


Valérie Camos is professor of developmental psychology at the Université of Fribourg (Switzerland) where she created the Fribourg Center for Cognition, a multidisciplinary research centre. She was previously professor at the Université de Bourgogne (France), junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France, and Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite (French honorific order for distinguished achievement). She authored 100 journal papers and 30 book chapters on working memory and mathematical cognition. She is associate editor of L'Année Psychologique, was associate editor of the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology and European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, and on the board of Current Directions in Psychological Science. She was on the governing board of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology, and heads EWOMS (European Working Memory Symposium).

Nelson Cowan (Ph.D. 1980, University of Wisconsin) is Curators' Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri, where he has taught since 1985. He authored Attention and memory: An integrated framework (1995, Oxford University Press), Working memory capacity (2016, Psychology Press and Routledge Classic Edition), and over 240 journal articles and 60 book chapters on working memory, its relation to attention, and their childhood development. He has done collaborative work on amnesia, schizophrenia, dyslexia, and language impairment. His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1984. Dr. Cowan was President of Division 3 of the American Psychological Association (Experimental Psychology, 2008-2009) and an elected member of the Governing Board of the Psychonomic Society (2006-2011). He has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Helsinki, Finland (2003) and the University of Liège, Belgium (2015).