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Updated: Jul 12, 2025
09:05
Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)
Published on: June 12, 2017
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Can compression take place in working memory without a central contribution of long-term memory?
Fabien Mathy1, Ori Friedman2, Nicolas Gauvrit3
1Université Côte d'Azur & CNRS, Nice, France. fabien.mathy@unice.fr.
Memory & Cognition
|October 26, 2023
Summary
Working memory compression aids recall by simplifying information, reducing cognitive load. Memory errors occur when this compression process falters, suggesting working memory
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human Memory
Background:
- Structured information is more memorable due to compression, reducing cognitive load.
- Previous research primarily attributed information compression to long-term memory.
- The distinct roles of working memory and long-term memory in compression remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the presence and impact of compression within working memory.
- To differentiate the contributions of working memory versus long-term memory to information compression.
- To analyze signatures of compression in a large-scale, naturalistic dataset of memory recall.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a large dataset of over 32,000 memory trials from a science museum.
- Analyzed recall performance for briefly presented sequences of colors.
- Estimated the compressibility of information sequences and correlated it with memory accuracy.
Main Results:
- Information compressibility significantly predicted memory performance.
- Higher compressibility in early sequence parts predicted better recall of later parts.
- Recalled sequences were simpler than original stimuli, indicating compression effects.
Conclusions:
- Compression can occur within working memory, facilitating immediate information storage.
- Working memory compression reduces cognitive load, allowing for retention of more information.
- Memory errors are systematic and linked to failures in the working memory compression process.
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