Working Memory: A Special Issue of "The Quarterly Journal Of Experimental Psychology: Section A"

This volume illustrates the conceptual inter-relatedness of approaches to working memory, while reflecting diversity of methods being used, from neuropsychological investigations to studies of normal children and adults. The papers provide a broad coverage and highlight a number of important theoretical issues in the field.; One set of papers is concerned with executive function, and demonstrates that its fractionation is on the research agenda. Another set illustrates how recent work on phonological working memory is advancing to the stage of detailed modelling and rekindling interest in the problem of serial ordering. Two papers on visuo-spatial working memory provide a complementary perspective on serial ordering. Others report new methods for exploring visuo-spatial working memory. A final set of papers adds to the growing evidence that working memory is critically involved in language learning and language acquisition, while questioning the nature of its widely assumed role in calculation.