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Beschreibung: Researchers distinguish between two types of working memory representations: declarative and procedural representations. Declarative representations refer to the objects of our thoughts. For example, when we try to remember the items on our shopping list. By contrast, procedural representations refer to the actions that we perform with these objects of thoughts. Continuing with our example, this could be for instance that if we find the eggs on our shopping list that we remember to place them on the very top of our shopping basket.
However, it is an ongoing debate whether declarative and procedural working memory are independent of each other and draw on different limited working memory capacities or whether they are dependent on each other and draw on the same capacity. Oberauer (2009) proposed that declarative and procedural working memory are two subsystems within working memory that are structured and function analogously but are independent from one another (e.g., Souza et al., 2012). Yet, some researchers state that declarative and procedural working memory are (under certain circumstances) not independent from one another and share the same capacity (e.g., Barrouillet et al., 2015; Formica et al., 2020).
The aim of this Bachelor?s thesis is to 1) gather and review the literature that discusses the independence between declarative and procedural working memory and 2) discuss based on the literature review whether these two working memory subsystems are independent or not.
Barrouillet, P., Corbin, L., Dagry, I., & Camos, V. (2015). An empirical test of the independence between declarative and procedural working memory in Oberauer's (2009) theory. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 22(4), 1035?1040. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0787-y
Formica, S., González-García, C., & Brass, M. (2020). The effects of declaratively maintaining and proactively proceduralizing novel stimulus-response mappings. Cognition, 201, 104295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104295
Oberauer, K. (2009). Design for a working memory. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (pp. 45?100). Elsevier Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-7421(09)51002-X
Souza, A. S., Oberauer, K., Gade, M., & Druey, M. D. (2012). Processing of representations in declarative and procedural working memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65(5), 1006-1033. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2011.640403
Kontakt: Isabel Courage, E-Mail
Beschreibung: Forgetting has a bad reputation. Yet, intentional forgetting is essential to deal with the vast amount of information we are confronted with each day ? it helps us to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information. Various studies using the directed forgetting paradigm have established that intention to remember or forget has a substantial impact on our working and long-term memory: When people are told to remember or forget words, memory for to-be-remembered (TBR) words is typically better than for to-be-forgotten (TBF) ones. Despite decades of research on this topic, there is an ongoing debate on what effect the intention to remember or forget has on associative memory. The goal of this thesis is to review and discuss the literature on that question: How does the intent to remember or forget affect associative memory (e.g., word-context associations that are either intentionally or incidentally learned)?
Kontakt: Klaus Oberauer, E-Mail
Beschreibung: Sind Podcast-Aufzeichnungen von Vorlesungen hilfreich für den Lernerfolg, hinderlich, oder haben sie keinen Effekt? Ziel der Arbeit ist, aus kognitions- und motivationspsychologischer Perspektive zu erwägen, welche Effekte zu erwarten sind, und die empirische Literatur zur Prüfung dieser Hypothesen zusammenzufassen und kritisch zu bewerten.
Kontakt: Klaus Oberauer, E-Mail
Beschreibung: Working memory (WM), the ability to temporarily hold information for further processing, is recognized for its limited capacity. Measuring WM capacity is essential for understanding its function and its interaction with other cognitive processes. A widely used and reliable method for experimentally measuring WM capacity is the change detection paradigm. Typically in this paradigm, participants are instructed to remember an array of information and identify any differences between this initial array and a second array presented after a brief delay. Additionally, computational measurement models allow researchers to conceptually analyse, specify, and formalize theoretical frameworks that have been proposed and debated, such as the discrete-slots and variable-precision models of WM capacity limits. This Bachelor?s thesis aims to review the application of current measurement models in change detection paradigms, as well as their shared and unique theoretical implications on WM capacity.
Kontakt: Dr. Shuangke Jiang, E-Mail
Beschreibung: Age-related memory impairment, a common consequence of the ageing process, affects millions of individuals worldwide, posing significant challenges to maintaining cognitive health and quality of life. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), a non-invasive brain stimulation technique, has emerged as a potential intervention to mitigate these impairments. During a tACS session, electrodes are placed on the scalp to deliver mild electrical currents at specific frequencies. These currents interact with the brain's natural rhythms, particularly those linked to memory processes, such as theta or gamma waves. Despite its potential, the underlying mechanisms by which tACS influences memory processes are not fully understood. Furthermore, the effects of tACS can be variable and depend on numerous factors, including electrode placement, stimulation parameters, and individual differences. The goal of the current Bachelor thesis is to synthesise recent findings on how tACS can tackle age-related memory decline, focusing on its mechanisms, efficacy, and future directions.
Kontakt: Dr. Shuangke Jiang, E-Mail
Beschreibung: Working memory can be defined as a capacity-limited cognitive system that is used for the storage and manipulation of information. When attention is focused on a specific piece of information within working memory, this information can serve as an attentional template in an ongoing perceptual task (see Olivers et al., 2011, for a review). However, it remains unclear how many items can serve as an attentional template at a time. On the one hand, several researchers have observed that only one item can serve as an attentional template at a time (e.g., Olivers et al., 2011; van Moorselaar et al., 2014), whereas other findings demonstrate that multiple items can serve as an attentional template at a time (e.g., Hollingworth & Beck, 2016; Kerzel & Witzel, 2019). Thus, it remains unclear what the capacity limit is of the attentional template.
The goal of the Bachelor thesis is to review literature and gather evidence for both sides of the debate, i.e., only one item can serve as an attentional template at a time vs. multiple items can serve as an attentional template at a time, and make a conclusion concerning the capacity limit of the attentional template based on the collected evidence.
References
Hollingworth, A., & Beck, V. M. (2016). Memory-based attention capture when multiple items are maintained in visual working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 42, 911?917. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000230
Kerzel, D., & Witzel, C. (2019). The allocation of resources in visual working memory and multiple attentional templates. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 45, 645?658. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000637
Olivers, C. N. L., Peters, J., Houtkamp, R., & Roelfsema, P. R. (2011). Different states in visual working memory: When it guides attention and when it does not. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(7), 327?334. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.TICS.2011.05.004
van Moorselaar, D., Theeuwes, J., & Olivers, C. N. L. (2014). In competition for the attentional template: Can multiple items within visual working memory guide attention? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 40(4), 1450?1464. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036229
Kontakt: Caro Hautekiet, E-Mail
Beschreibung: Working memory can be defined as a capacity-limited cognitive system that is used for the storage and manipulation of information. Within working memory, information can be prioritized by using a retro-cue. A retro-cue is typically a spatial cue that indicates which of the memory items will be most relevant for the upcoming memory test (Griffin & Nobre, 2003; Landman et al., 2003). When a retro-cue is used, memory performance has been found to be improved for the cued item in comparison to the uncued items. The memory performance benefit for the cued item is such a robust finding in the literature that it is considered a benchmark in working memory research (see Oberauer et al., 2018). Still, it remains unclear why this benefit arises. Past studies have proposed different hypotheses (see Souza & Oberauer, 2016 for an overview), but no consensus has been reached so far.
The goal of the Bachelor thesis is to review literature and gather evidence for or against the different hypotheses proposed in Souza and Oberauer?s (2016) review, with a strong focus on articles published since Souza and Oberauer?s (2016) review article.
References
Griffin, I. C., & Nobre, A. C. (2003). Orienting Attention to Locations in Internal Representations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 15(8), 1176?1194.
https://doi.org/10.1162/089892903322598139
Landman, R., Spekreijse, H., & Lamme, V. A. F. (2003). Large capacity storage of integrated objects before change blindness. Vision Research, 43(2), 149?164. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0042-6989(02)00402-9
Oberauer, K., Lewandowsky, S., Awh, E., Brown, G. D. A., Conway, A., Cowan, N., Donkin, C., Farrell, S., Hitch, G. J., Hurlstone, M. J., Ma, W. J., Morey, C. C., Nee, D. E., Schweppe, J., Vergauwe, E., & Ward, G. (2018). Benchmarks for models of short-term and working memory. Psychological Bulletin, 144(9), 885?958. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000153
Souza, A. S., & Oberauer, K. (2016). In search of the focus of attention in working memory: 13 years of the retro-cue effect. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-016-1108-5
Kontakt: Caro Hautekiet, E-Mail
Beschreibung: Looking at nothing effect (LAN) describes the behavior that individuals look at empty spatial locations during the retrieval of information which was previously associated with these locations. Over the years, the effect has been found to be quite robust and observed across a wide variety of experiments. However, the studies have not focused on understanding the role of visual attention in the effect. Visual attention is linked to both eye movements and working memory. Moreover, focus of attention, a selection mechanism in the working memory also interacts with visual attention. The idea of the thesis is to review the literature on the link between eye movements and visual attention and on the interaction between visual attention and working memory and how this review can help in informing the work on the Looking at Nothing Effect.
Kontakt: Ruhi Bhanap, E-Mail
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