We began with a question concerning the crucial role of the episodic buffer in binding together information from separate streams. The initial version of the revised model had only one route to the buffer, via the central executive. We proposed to test this using dual task methods to systematically disrupt each of the components of working memory, while studying the capacity to bind together otherwise disparate sources of information. Such a binding process was widely assumed to be a major function of conscious awareness (see Baars, 1997). We chose to study the role of binding in both perception and language. In the case of perception for example, it is assumed to be necessary for combining separate features such as shape and colour that are processed through different physiological channels into a single integrated percept, for instance redness and triangularity into a red triangle. Similarly in prose comprehension we assumed that information from heard or seen words will be bound into a coherent phrase via the contribution of syntax and semantics from long-term memory.. In the interests of breadth and generality we chose to investigate binding using both visual and verbal material. In the visual case, we studied the capacity to bind colour and shape information into integrated objects such as a red triangle, fully expecting that the central executive would play a crucial role. Our hypothesis was consistently rejected over an extended series of experiments. As expected, requiring a concurrent executively demanding task impaired overall performance, but it did so to an equivalent extent for material that involved binding such as coloured shapes, as it did to memory of the unbound components (Allen, Baddeley & Hitch, 2006). A separate series of studies examined the role of working memory in binding words into coherent sentences. We found a clear advantage to immediate recall of sentence-based sequences
We began with a question concerning the crucial role of the episodic buffer in binding together information from separate streams. The initial version of the revised model had only one route to the buffer, via the central executive. We proposed to test this using dual task methods to systematically disrupt each of the components of working memory, while studying the capacity to bind together otherwise disparate sources of information. Such a binding process was widely assumed to be a major function of conscious awareness (see Baars, 1997). We chose to study the role of binding in both perception and language. In the case of perception for example, it is assumed to be necessary for combining separate features such as shape and colour that are processed through different physiological channels into a single integrated percept, for instance redness and triangularity into a red triangle. Similarly in prose comprehension we assumed that information from heard or seen words will be bound into a coherent phrase via the contribution of syntax and semantics from long-term memory.. In the interests of breadth and generality we chose to investigate binding using both visual and verbal material. In the visual case, we studied the capacity to bind colour and shape information into integrated objects such as a red triangle, fully expecting that the central executive would play a crucial role. Our hypothesis was consistently rejected over an extended series of experiments. As expected, requiring a concurrent executively demanding task impaired overall performance, but it did so to an equivalent extent for material that involved binding such as coloured shapes, as it did to memory of the unbound components (Allen, Baddeley & Hitch, 2006). A separate series of studies examined the role of working memory in binding words into coherent sentences. We found a clear advantage to immediate recall of sentence-based sequences
How_modular_is_WM_mss.docx