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Central and peripheral components of working memory storage.

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By Cowan, Nelson; Saults, J. Scott; Blume, Christopher L.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol 143(5), Oct 2014, 1806-1836.

Abstract
This study reexamines the issue of how much of working memory storage is central, or
shared across sensory modalities and verbal and nonverbal codes, and how much is
peripheral, or specific to a modality or code. In addition to the exploration of many
parameters in 9 new dual-task experiments and reanalysis of some prior evidence, the
innovations of the present work compared to previous studies of memory for 2 stimulus
sets include (a) use of a principled set of formulas to estimate the number of items in
working memory and (b) a model to dissociate central components, which are allocated
to very different stimulus sets depending on the instructions, from peripheral
components, which are used for only 1 kind of material. We consistently find that the
central contribution is smaller than was suggested by Saults and Cowan (2007) and that
the peripheral contribution is often much larger when the task does not require the
binding of features within an object. Previous capacity estimates are consistent with the
sum of central plus peripheral components observed here. We consider the implications
of the data as constraints on theories of working memory storage and maintenance.
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