![]() ![]() This raised the crucial question as to how you might decide between the two apparently opposing views. ![]() Edward Tolman in Stanford had a view of learning in rats that fitted this model, using it to challenge Hull's neo-behaviorist approach. Within psychology, the Newtonian model was explicitly copied by Clark Hull in his attempt to produce a general theory of learning, principally based on the study of maze learning in the albino rat.Īn alternative model of theorizing came from Oxford, where Stephen Toulmin (1953) argued that theories were like maps, ways of organizing our existing knowledge of the world, providing tools both for interacting with the world and for further exploration. The first, championed by Cambridge philosopher Richard Braithwaite (1953), regarded Newton's Principia as the model to which scientific theories should aspire, involving as it does postulates, laws, equations, and predictions. Typical questions included, is psychology a science? if so, is it cumulative or are we doomed to keep on asking the same questions, as appeared to be the case in philosophy? What would a good psychological theory look like?Īs students we were offered two answers to this question. This in turn led to a renewed interest in the philosophy of science as applied to psychology. As a result, prewar issues such as the conflict between Gestalt psychology and neobehaviorism began to be challenged by new data and new ideas, some based on cybernetics, the study of control systems, with others influenced by the newly developed digital computers. I entered psychology as a student at University College London in 1953, a very exciting time for the field of psychology, which had benefited greatly from developments during the Second World War, where theory was enriched by the need to tackle practical problems. My first draft would have filled the chapter page allowance with references I apologize to all of those whose work should have been cited and is not. What follows is a partial, as opposed to impartial, account of the origins of the concept of multicomponent working memory (M-WM) and of my own views on its subsequent development. The topic of working memory has increased dramatically in citation counts since the early years, not all of course related to or supportive of my own work, but a recent attempt to review it ( Baddeley 2007) ended with more than 50 pages of references. I was honored, pleased, and challenged by the invitation to write this prefatory chapter, pleased because it offered the chance to take a broad and somewhat autobiographical view of my principal area of interest, working memory (WM), but challenged by the potential magnitude of the task. WORKING MEMORY: THEORIES, MODELS, AND CONTROVERSIES ![]()
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