Oberauer, Klaus (University of Potsdam, Germany) - Parallel processing in working memory


Project:	Parallel processing in working memory
Researchers:	Klaus Oberauer, Reinhold Kliegl, and Katrin Göthe
Duration:	since 2001
Support:	Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Description:	Can we perform two cognitive operations at the same time? Some believe that our cognitive architecture has a bottleneck that allows only one "central" cognitive operation to be performed at any time (e.g., in Anderson's ACT-R, only one production fires at any time). Others have argued that there is no principled limit to parallel processing, and dual-task interference is largely due to executive strategies that implement a sequential scheduling of operations (e.g., the EPIC architecture of Meyer & Kieras). We investigated whether people can perform two updating operations in working memory simultaneously - an arithmetic operation updating a single digit and a spatial mental shift to update the position of a dot in a matrix. Initially, all participants experienced substantial dual-task interference. After 24 sessions of practice, most of them were able to perform two operations as fast as predicted from a model assuming parallel processing without interference. This result was obtained under conditions selected to maximize the chance for parallel processing to emerge. Currently we are exploring the limits of people's ability to acquire parallel processing.
Publications:	Oberauer, K. & Kliegl, R. (in press). Simultaneous Cognitive Operations in Working Memory After Dual-Task Practice. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.

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