Positional effects in working memory

In this work we consider the ratio of working, short-term and long-term memory on the material of the study of positional effects when performing tasks on working memory. The results of two studies using tasks on determination of the complex volume of working memory demonstrated the presence of recency effect and primacy effect. The emergence of the primacy effect depended on the complexity of additional task. The disappearance of the primacy effect led to a compensatory increase in the recency effect. The results suggest that short-term memory, long-term memory and attention control processes participate in the implementation of working memory functions.

1. Botto M., Basso D., Ferrari M., Palladino P. When working memory updating requires updating: analysis of serial position in a running memory task. Acta Psychologica, 2014, vol. 148, pp. 123–129.
2. Case R., Kurland M., Goldberg J. Operational efficiency and the growth of short-term memory span. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1982, vol. 33, pp. 386–404.
3. Cowen N. An embedded-processes model of working memory. In A. Miyake, P. Shah (Eds.), Models of Working Memory. Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 62–101.
4. Faraco C., Unsworth N., Langley J., Terry D., Li K., Zhang D., Liu T., Miller L. Complex span tasks and hippocampal recruitment during working memory. Neuroimage, 2011, vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 773–787.
5. Lepine R., Bernardin S., Barroillet P. Attention switching and working memory spans. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2005, vol. 17, no. 3, p. 329–345.
6. McCabe D. The role of covert retrieval in working memory span tasks: Evidence from delayed recall tests. Journal of Memory and Cognition, 2008, vol. 58, p. 480–494.
7. McElree B., Dosher B.A. Serial position and set size in short-term memory: the time course of recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1989, vol. 118, p. 346.
8. Miller G., Galanter E., Pribram K. Plans and the structure of behavior. New York: Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston, 1960. (Russ. ed.: Miller G., Galanter E., Pribram. K. Plany i struktury povedenija. Moscow, Progress Publ., 1965.)
9. Morrison A.B., Conway A., Chein J. Primacy and recency effects as indices of the focus of attention. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2014, vol. 8, article 6.
10. Postman L., Phillips L.W. Short-term temporal changes in free recall. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1965, vol. 17, pp. 132–138.
11. Turner M., Engle R. Is working memory capacity task dependent? Journal of Memory & Language, 1989, vol. 28, pp. 127–154.
12. Unsworth N., Spillers G.J., Brewer G.A. Examining the relations among working memory capacity, attentional control, and fluid intelligence from a dual-component framework. Psychology Science Quarterly, 2009, vol. 51, pp. 388–402.
13. Velichkovsky B.B. Ispol'zovanie mekhanizmov kratkovremennogo i dolgovremennogo khraneniya informatsii pri vypolnenii zadanii na rabochuyu pamyat' [The usage of short-term and log-term storage mechanisms during working memory tasks]. Vestnik Kostromskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta im. N A Nekrasova. Seriya Pedagogika, psikhologiya, sotsial'naya rabota, yuvenologiya, sotsiokinetika, 2013, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 29–32. (In Russian).
14. Velichkovsky B.B., Kozlovsky S.A. Rabochaya pamyat' cheloveka: Fundamental'nye issledovaniya i prakticheskie prilozheniya [Human working memory: fundamental research and practical applications]. Integral [Integral], 2012, vol. 68, no. 6, pp. 14–16. (In Russian).