Title: Working memory across the adult lifespan: An adversarial collaboration
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: The human ability to keep track of ongoing thoughts, plans, actions, current tasks, and changes around us is essential for everyday living. This ability is known as working memory, a system of the brain that allows us to focus on what we are doing, avoid distractions, switch from one task to another, solve problems, navigate around a shopping centre or city, drive on a busy motorway, prepare a meal, or do several things at once such as walking and talking. However, there are vigorous debates among scientists about what limits our working memory ability, and how those limits change as people move through middle age and into their older years. Sometimes such debates can lead to major new insights, but often researchers work with like minded people rather than with people who have opposing views. This can lead to an endless cycle of debate that hampers the genuine advance of understanding, and can result in ineffective use of limited research resources, effort and time. The investigators are international leaders of three different scientific theories and approaches to understanding the important human cognitive ability of working memory. The proposal involves the rare occurrence of co-investigators who hold different views, agreeing to work together on a project that will directly investigate why their independent research programmes have previously generated different results with different implications for understanding the effects of age on cognition. Although holding differing scientific views we have successfully cooperated in editing a journal issue and organising scientific meetings, as well as agreeing to work together to help advance understanding of what changes in the cognitive ability of us all as we age, thereby allowing a solid basis for the collaboration. From previous research results: Theory 1 assumes (a) if working memory is full to capacity with e.g. words, then it will be impossible to make decisions or to remember visual patterns as well (b) there is one general working memory ability that declines across adult age. Theory 2 assumes (a) working memory performance depends on how long attention is focused on memory or on decision making (b) mental rehearsal of words does not require attention (c) mental rehearsal and attention might each decline at different rates across adult age. Theory 3 assumes (a) even healthy older people can cope with holding words and visual patterns in working memory while making quick and accurate decisions (b) people can have good memories without being quick decision makers and vice versa (c) there are several different working memory abilities and these decline at different rates across adulthood with some abilities relatively intact in old age The research involves 17 experiments to examine how healthy adult volunteers aged 18-75 perform when they are asked to remember words or visual patterns at the limits of their working memory capacity, and are asked to make simple rapid decisions (such as whether a string of letters is a word or not, or taps into their general knowledge of the world). The experiments will look at how people cope with focusing on the memory task or on the decision task, or are asked to do both at the same time. Two of the experiments will involve large numbers of people performing a range of tests to see if, e.g. people who are good at memory tests are also quick and accurate on decisions, or good at memory and making decisions at the same time. Each theory makes different predictions for the results of our planned experiments. The planned research has significant potential for new theoretical developments, and for major advances in the understanding of this key human ability across the adult lifespan. Crucially, it will reveal whether all of working memory declines with age or whether some aspects remain largely intact, with important implications for design of technology for older users, and for lifelong education and training.


Research activity codes: 1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH