Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA; Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
Department of Psychological Sciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
Trends Cogn Sci. 2024 Nov;28(11):1023-1036. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2024.06.006. Epub 2024 Jul 16.
Given the fundamental role of working memory (WM) in all domains of cognition, a central question has been whether WM is domain-general. However, the term 'domain-general' has been used in different, and sometimes misleading, ways. By reviewing recent evidence and biologically plausible models of WM, we show that the level of domain-generality varies substantially between three facets of WM: in terms of computations, WM is largely domain-general. In terms of neural correlates, it contains both domain-general and domain-specific elements. Finally, in terms of application, it is mostly domain-specific. This variance encourages a shift of focus towards uncovering domain-general computational principles and away from domain-general approaches to the analysis of individual differences and WM training, favoring newer perspectives, such as training-as-skill-learning.
鉴于工作记忆(WM)在认知的所有领域中的基本作用,一个核心问题是 WM 是否具有领域普遍性。然而,“领域普遍性”一词已经以不同的、有时是误导性的方式被使用。通过回顾最近的 WM 证据和生物学上合理的模型,我们表明 WM 的三个方面在领域普遍性方面存在很大差异:在计算方面,WM 具有很大的领域普遍性。在神经相关方面,它包含领域普遍和领域特定的元素。最后,在应用方面,它主要是领域特定的。这种差异鼓励人们将注意力从对个体差异和 WM 训练的领域一般性分析方法转移到揭示领域一般性计算原则上,转而支持新的观点,例如将训练视为技能学习。