The effect of working memory maintenance on long-term memory
Initially inspired by the Atkinson and Shiffrin model, researchers have spent a half century investigating whether actively maintaining an item in working memory (WM) leads to improved subsequent long-term memory (LTM). Empirical results have been inconsistent, and thus the answer to the question re...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128505 |
| _version_ | 1826196327017480192 |
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| author | Hartshorne, Joshua Keiles Makovski, Tal |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Hartshorne, Joshua Keiles Makovski, Tal |
| author_sort | Hartshorne, Joshua Keiles |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Initially inspired by the Atkinson and Shiffrin model, researchers have spent a half century investigating whether actively maintaining an item in working memory (WM) leads to improved subsequent long-term memory (LTM). Empirical results have been inconsistent, and thus the answer to the question remains unclear. We present evidence from 13 new experiments as well as a meta-analysis of 61 published experiments. Both the new experiments and meta-analysis show clear evidence that increased WM maintenance of a stimulus leads to superior recognition for that stimulus in subsequent LTM tests. This effect appears robust across a variety of experimental design parameters, suggesting that the variability in prior results in the literature is probably due to low power and random chance. The results support theories on which there is a close link between WM and LTM mechanisms, while challenging claims that this relationship is specific to verbal memory and evolved to support language acquisition. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:25:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/128505 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:25:09Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1285052022-09-30T20:59:11Z The effect of working memory maintenance on long-term memory Hartshorne, Joshua Keiles Makovski, Tal Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Initially inspired by the Atkinson and Shiffrin model, researchers have spent a half century investigating whether actively maintaining an item in working memory (WM) leads to improved subsequent long-term memory (LTM). Empirical results have been inconsistent, and thus the answer to the question remains unclear. We present evidence from 13 new experiments as well as a meta-analysis of 61 published experiments. Both the new experiments and meta-analysis show clear evidence that increased WM maintenance of a stimulus leads to superior recognition for that stimulus in subsequent LTM tests. This effect appears robust across a variety of experimental design parameters, suggesting that the variability in prior results in the literature is probably due to low power and random chance. The results support theories on which there is a close link between WM and LTM mechanisms, while challenging claims that this relationship is specific to verbal memory and evolved to support language acquisition. NSF (Grants 0345525 and 5F32HD072748) 2020-11-17T16:59:37Z 2020-11-17T16:59:37Z 2019-05 2020-09-24T21:47:37Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0090-502X 1532-5946 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128505 Hartshorne, Joshua K. and Tal Makovski. "The effect of working memory maintenance on long-term memory." Memory & Cognition 47, 4 (May 2019): 749–763. © 2019 The Psychonomic Society, Inc. en https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-019-00908-6 Memory & Cognition Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. The Psychonomic Society, Inc. application/pdf Springer Science and Business Media LLC Springer US |
| spellingShingle | Hartshorne, Joshua Keiles Makovski, Tal The effect of working memory maintenance on long-term memory |
| title | The effect of working memory maintenance on long-term memory |
| title_full | The effect of working memory maintenance on long-term memory |
| title_fullStr | The effect of working memory maintenance on long-term memory |
| title_full_unstemmed | The effect of working memory maintenance on long-term memory |
| title_short | The effect of working memory maintenance on long-term memory |
| title_sort | effect of working memory maintenance on long term memory |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128505 |
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