TITLE: Activation-based buffer: past, present, and future
SPEAKER: Eddy J Davelaar (Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College)

ABSTRACT:

William James introduced the terms primary and secondary memory, together with the view that primary memory is supported by ongoing neural activity. Here I start with the view that primary memory is the activated part of long-term memory, or better yet that primary memory is the process (see also, Norman, 1968) by which temporarily activated long-term knowledge is maintained in active state beyond its expected unaided life-time. The current debate in the cognitive literature is whether a short-term buffer needs to be postulated in order to account for performance on free recall tasks (Brown, et al., 2007; Davelaar, et al., 2005; Howard, et al., 2007). I will touch on dissociations in recency effects (past work), and some points of confusions (present work). One source of confusion is the unclarity of the concept of activation-based short-term store. I will show using simulations why an activation-buffer is different than a fixed-box buffer and its association with working memory models that assume that the content of working memory is the activated part of long-term memory (Cowan, 1999; McElree, 2006; Oberauer, 2002). Finally, I will show how this framework can be exploited to address questions in dementia research (future work).