Working Memory in Development by Pierre Barrouillet

Working Memory in Development by Pierre Barrouillet

Working memory is the system responsible for the temporary maintenance and processing of information involved in most cognitive activities, and its study is essential to the understanding of cognitive development. Working Memory in Development provides an integrative and thorough account of how working memory develops and how this development underpins childhood cognitive development.

Tracing back theories of cognitive development from Piaget's most influential theory to neo-Piagetian approaches and theories pertaining to the information-processing tradition, Camos and Barrouillet show in Part I how the conception of a working memory became critical to understanding cognitive development. Part II provides an overview of the main approaches to working memory and reviews how working memory itself develops across infancy and childhood. In the final Part III, the authors explain their own theory, the Time-Based Resource-Sharing (TBRS) model, and discuss how this accounts for the development of working memory as well providing an adequate frame to understanding the role of working memory in cognitive development.

Working Memory in Development effectively addresses central and debated questions related to working memory and is essential reading for students and researchers in developmental, cognitive, and educational psychology.

"Barrouillet and Camos’ Time-Based Resource-Sharing Model provides a much needed integration of findings on behavioral characteristics of working memory, their neural bases, and individual and developmental differences among people in its operationThe book is a tour de force and merits a wide audience." --Robert Siegler

"Camos and Barrouillet have produced a highly readable exposition of their insightful theoretical account of working memory and its childhood development. The presentation is thorough even while being even-handed and relating the time-based resource sharing approach to other views. Working memory is the temporary mental access to information in a form that supports comprehension and production of language, as well as various kinds of problem-solving. For anyone interested in understanding how those processes develop and how the balance of remembering and forgetting shifts to allow cognition to grow with age in childhood, this book provides a useful starting point to launch into a deeper knowledge and understanding. It also provides a fertile ground for further research, with a stimulating summary of prospects for the future." --Nelson Cowan, University of Missouri, USA

Valérie Camos is Professor of Developmental Psychology at the Université of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Pierre Barrouillet is Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and Director of the Archives Jean Piaget.