Working memory and retrieval: a resource-dependent inhibition model

Abstract

Four experiments examined individual differences in working memory (WM) capacity and how those differences affect performance on retrieval from both primary and secondary memory. The results showed that WM differences appear only in retrieval from primary memory and then only under conditions that lead to interference or response competition within the task. This suggests that WM capacity is important to retrieval that is based on controlled effortful search but not search that is based on automatic activation. A view is presented suggesting that individual differences in attentional resources lead to differences in the ability to inhibit or suppress irrelevant information. The paradigm also allowed more general comparisons between the processes involved in retrieval from primary and secondary memory. As expected, it was found that retrieval from primary memory was a function of set size. However, for sets larger than 2 items, retrieval from secondary memory was independent of set size.