Hosted by the School of Psychological Science
Abstract: Does the allocation of attention affect working memory capacity, or vice versa? I examine progress from several recent studies of child development using probe recognition of colors from a small array. I will discuss a cascade of processing between stimulus and response in which working memory and the allocation of attention have effects on one another in turn, with both kinds of changes important in cognitive development.
Professor Cowan is a world-leader in the study of the development of working memory, and working memory more generally. His work is highly influential (for example, his 2001 ‘Magical Number 4’ paper has over 8000 citations), and he is the recipient of various awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Psychological Association’s Society for Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science (2020) and fellowships of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science.