Working Memory Capacity and Generalization in Predictive Learning.

Abstract

The relationship between working memory and deliberative processing was examined in a human contingency learning experiment that employed the combined positive and negative patterning procedure of Shanks and Darby (1998). Participants with a large working memory capacity showed generalization consistent with the application of an opposites rule (i.e., a compound and its elements signal opposite outcomes), whilst individuals with a small working memory capacity showed generalization consistent with surface similarity. Working memory capacity was assessed via the Operation Span task (Turner & Engle, 1989). Implications for associative, inferential, and dual-process accounts of human learning are discussed.