50 years of research on working memory

• Published in: Kwartalnik Naukowy Fides et Ratio Vol. 58; no. 2; pp. 77 - 84
• Main Author: Harasimczuk, Justyna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 17.06.2024
• ISSN: 2082-7067; 2082-7067
• DOI: 10.34766/fetr.v58i2.1274

Exactly 50 years ago, Allan Baddeley and Graham Hitch's (1974) working memory model fascinated academics and diagnosticians dealing with human cognition and fundamentally transformed the landscape of memory research. Working memory is the ability of the human mind that enables the creation and reception of messages, mental arithmetic, decision-making and other complex cognitive activities that require the temporary storage of necessary information and manipulation of it in order to perform current tasks (e.g. following the flow of a conversation). It is therefore one of the most dynamically developed areas of mind research in cognitive psychology, cognitive science, neuropsychology and the psychology of individual differences (especially in the diagnosis of intellect). The research dispute concerns many aspects of the construct of working memory described in detail: its structure, functions, capacity limitations, connection with consciousness, long-term memory, attention, etc. (cf. Logie, Belletier et al., 2021). The proposed solutions are so detailed that people who do not closely follow the literature on the subject may have difficulty understanding their essence. The origins of this creative confusion date back to the proposals of Baddeley and Hitch (1974), who carefully analyzed data on temporary memory and recognized it as a system composed of many interacting components, that is, separate subsystems storing information in different formats (e.g., visual or auditory), and from their superior subsystem, which manages the flow and use of the collected information. This article presents the context in which Baddeley and Hitch's (1974) multi-component model of working memory was developed, describes the milestones marking the dynamic changes it underwent, and lists the research projects that prompted a more detailed description of the individual components of the model. Although an influential part of contemporary competing approaches to working memory abandons many of Baddeley's theses (Cowan, 2017; Oberauer, 2019), each of them follows the conceptual paths forged by this author and must specify their positions in the questions asked during the fifty-year journey of working memory researchers.