The Second Annual Cognitive Symposium

The ASU Psychology Department and GPSA present:
 
The Second Annual Cognitive Symposium
 
With Speakers:
 

Randall W. Engle, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology at Georgia Institute of Technology
Date and Time: March 1st, 3:30 pm                        Location: PSY 244 (the GRC)
Working memory capacity as a mediating variable.
Early work on working memory capacity was primarily concerned with situations in which individual differences in working memory capacity were important to real-world cognitive tasks. Clearly, cognitive control plays a large role in why those differences are important. There is good evidence that these differences result from particular brain systems associated with particular neurotransmitters and that particular single-nucleotide polymorphisms are involved. It has also become clear that we need to think about working memory capacity not just as a TRAIT variable but also as a STATE variable much in the same way we think of state and trait anxiety. I will discuss evidence for this idea and the idea that we need to think about measures of working memory capacity as reflecting a mediating or intervening variable which increases the generality of the concept enormously. I will also talk about possible different components of the construct as reflected by different working memory tasks.

 
And
 

Nelson Cowan, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology at the University of Missouri – Columbia
Date and Time: March 2nd, 11:00 am         Location: The BioDesign Institute Auditorium
Working memory and executive control: Does control control storage or does storage control control?
Although researchers agree that there is a relationship between working memory storage and executive control, the direction of causation is a matter of debate. I will evaluate evidence that the primary variable in human thought is how well one can control what gets stored, and weigh it against other evidence that the primary variable is how much can be stored concurrently. The goal is a better understanding of the processes that help determine the quality and complexity of human thought.

 
And
 

Discussion Panel with Both Speakers
Date and Time: March 2nd, 3:30 pm           Location: The BioDesign Institute Auditorium
 
Both Dr. Engle and Dr. Cowan will meet with a student-led panel to answer questions about the field of working memory research, focusing on their unique perspectives. Audience participation is encouraged.