Oberauer, Klaus (University of Potsdam, Germany) - Modelling the capacity limits of working memory


Project:	Modelling the capacity limits of working memory
Researchers:	Klaus Oberauer and Reinhold Kliegl
Duration:	since 1998
Support:	Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Description:	We developed a mathematical model to describe the limited capacity of working memory. The model is based on interference between item representations with partially overlapping features. The model accounts for time-accuracy functions of young and old adults in a memory-updating task. Alternative models based on the idea of limited resources, on a "magical number" of slots in working memory, or on a race between processing and decay, were also fit to these data, but with less comforting results. The interference model has since been successfully applied to other experiments with the memory-updating task.
Publications:	Oberauer, K. & Kliegl, R. (2001). Beyond resources - formal models for complexity effects and age differences in working memory. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 13, 187-215.
	The long version of this paper as a technical report (146k Adobe Acrobat file)
	Kliegl, R., Mayr, U., & Oberauer, K. (2000). Resource limitations and process dissociations in individual differences research. In U. v. Hecker, S. Dutke, & G. Sedek (Eds.), Generative mental processes and cognitive resources: Integrative research on adaptation and control (pp. 337-366). Dordrecht: Kluwer.

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