Overcoming working memory limitations

Overcoming memory limitations in rule learning

Adults, infants, and other species are able to learn and generalize abstract patterns from sequentially-presented stimuli. Rule learning of this type may be involved in children’s acquisition of linguistic structure, but the nature of the mechanisms underlying these abilities is unknown. While inferences regarding the capabilities of these mechanisms are commonly made based on the pattern of su...

Limitations of Human Visual Working Memory

Limitations and chances of working memory training

Recent studies show controversial results on the trainability of working memory (WM) capacity being a limiting factor of human cognition. In order to contribute to this open question we investigated if participants improve in trained tasks and whether gains generalize to untrained WM tasks, mathematical problem solving and intelligence tests. 83 adults trained over a three week period (7.5 hour...

Working memory: activation limitations on retrieval.

Two experiments which require subjects to hold a digit span while solving an equation and then recall the digit span are performed. The size of the memory span and the complexity of the equation are manipulated as well as whether the subject is required to substitute items from the digit span for constants in the equation. As either task (digit span recall or equation solving) gets more complex...

Directed evolution: overcoming biology's limitations.

The field of directed, in vitro evolution uses biological machinery to develop nucleic acid and peptide oligomers that bind to molecular targets, some of which are important for therapeutic applications1,2. The advantage of this approach over traditional small molecule–based medicinal chemistry is based in part on the number of molecules that may be screened: in vitro evolution can screen upwar...