Alan Baddeley

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Alan Baddeley
CBE FRS
Alan Baddeley.jpg
Alan Baddeley
Born
Alan David Baddeley

(1934-03-23) 23 March 1934 (age 90)
Leeds, Yorkshire, England
NationalityBritish
Education University College London
Princeton University
University of Cambridge (PhD)
Known forNeuropsychological tests, Baddeley's model of working memory
Awards CBE FRS (1993)
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of York
Thesis The Influence of Acoustic and Semantic Similarity on Long-term Memory for Word Sequences  (1962)

Alan David Baddeley CBE FRS (born 23 March 1934) is a British psychologist. He is known for his research on memory and for developing the three-component model of working memory. He is a professor of psychology at the University of York.

Contents

Biography

Baddeley was born in Leeds, Yorkshire on 23 March 1934. [1] He lived there with his parents, Donald and Nellie Baddeley, until leaving for university. [2] He decided to study psychology and was originally interested in psychoanalysis. Later he changed his focus to evidence-based psychology. [3] In 1956, Baddeley went to the United States of America to continue his studies. After spending a year in America, he returned home. He then went to Cambridge, where he met and married Hilary Ann White. Baddeley and his wife have three sons. [2]

Baddeley has taught and conducted research at University of Sussex, University of Stirling, MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, and University of Bristol. He is currently a professor of psychology at the University of York. [4]

Education

Baddeley attended the University College London from 1953 to 1956. He then obtained an MA from Princeton University's Department of Psychology in 1957. He earned a PhD from University of Cambridge in 1962. [5] He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by University of Essex in 1999, [6] Plymouth University in 2000, [7] and University of Bristol in 2019. [8]

Career and research

In 1974, working with Graham Hitch, Baddeley developed an influential model of working memory called Baddeley's model of working memory, [9] which argues for the existence of multiple short-term memory stores and a separate interacting system for manipulating the content of these stores. There are three components of this model: the phonological loop, the central executive, and the visuospatial sketch pad. [9] In 2000, Baddeley suggested adding a fourth component to his memory model called the episodic buffer. [10] The model accounts for much of the empirical data on short-term retention and manipulation of information.

The Working Memory Model (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974, revised 2000) The Working Memory Model.svg
The Working Memory Model (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974, revised 2000)

His landmark study in 1975 on the capacity of short-term memory [11] showed that people remembered more short words than long words in a recall test. This was called the word length effect and it demonstrated that pronunciation time rather than number of items determines the capacity of verbal short-term memory. This study also found that when participants repeated an irrelevant sound while reading the words, the word length effect does not happen. [11]

Working with Barbara Wilson, Baddeley also did several important studies on amnesia and memory. [12] [13] They studied patients with temporal lobe damage that caused memory problems. Results of such studies provide evidence that short-term and long-term memory are not one system. The amnesia patients had normal short-term memory but impaired long-term memory. [14]

Baddeley has also done research studies using divers and various underwater conditions. He studied the effects of depth and pressure on dexterity, [15] the impact of temperature on response time, [16] and context-dependent memory on land and underwater. [17]

Baddeley was the director of the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, a branch of the UK Medical Research Council, based in Cambridge, from 1974 - 1997. [18] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1993 [19] and in 1996, was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. [20] In 2001, Baddeley received the American Psychological Association (APA) Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions. [21] Baddeley was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the British Psychological Society in 2012. [22] He also received the Major Advancement in Psychological Science Prize from the International Union of Psychological Science in 2016. [23]

Other notable works

Baddeley has also part authored a number of neuropsychological tests including the Doors and People, [24] Children's Test of Nonword Repetition (CN REP), [25] the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT), [26] Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI), [27] Visual Patterns Test (VPT) [28] and the Speed and Capacity of Language Processing Test (SCOLP). [29]

Baddeley was involved in the design of United Kingdom postcodes, [30] and was one of the founders of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology. [31]

Related Research Articles

Long-term memory (LTM) is the stage of the Atkinson–Shiffrin memory model in which informative knowledge is held indefinitely. It is defined in contrast to sensory memory, the initial stage, and short-term or working memory, the second stage, which persists for about 18 to 30 seconds. LTM is grouped into two categories known as explicit memory and implicit memory. Explicit memory is broken down into episodic and semantic memory, while implicit memory includes procedural memory and emotional conditioning.

Short-term memory is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in an active, readily available state for a short interval. For example, short-term memory holds a phone number that has just been recited. The duration of short-term memory is estimated to be on the order of seconds. The commonly cited capacity of 7 items, found in Miller's Law, has been superseded by 4±1 items. In contrast, long-term memory holds information indefinitely.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neuropsychological test</span> Assess neurological function associated with certain behaviors and brain damage

Neuropsychological tests are specifically designed tasks that are used to measure a psychological function known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. Tests are used for research into brain function and in a clinical setting for the diagnosis of deficits. They usually involve the systematic administration of clearly defined procedures in a formal environment. Neuropsychological tests are typically administered to a single person working with an examiner in a quiet office environment, free from distractions. As such, it can be argued that neuropsychological tests at times offer an estimate of a person's peak level of cognitive performance. Neuropsychological tests are a core component of the process of conducting neuropsychological assessment, along with personal, interpersonal and contextual factors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cognitive neuropsychology</span>

Cognitive neuropsychology is a branch of cognitive psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relates to specific psychological processes. Cognitive psychology is the science that looks at how mental processes are responsible for the cognitive abilities to store and produce new memories, produce language, recognize people and objects, as well as our ability to reason and problem solve. Cognitive neuropsychology places a particular emphasis on studying the cognitive effects of brain injury or neurological illness with a view to inferring models of normal cognitive functioning. Evidence is based on case studies of individual brain damaged patients who show deficits in brain areas and from patients who exhibit double dissociations. Double dissociations involve two patients and two tasks. One patient is impaired at one task but normal on the other, while the other patient is normal on the first task and impaired on the other. For example, patient A would be poor at reading printed words while still being normal at understanding spoken words, while the patient B would be normal at understanding written words and be poor at understanding spoken words. Scientists can interpret this information to explain how there is a single cognitive module for word comprehension. From studies like these, researchers infer that different areas of the brain are highly specialised. Cognitive neuropsychology can be distinguished from cognitive neuroscience, which is also interested in brain-damaged patients, but is particularly focused on uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive processes.

"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information" is one of the most highly cited papers in psychology. It was written by the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller of Harvard University's Department of Psychology and published in 1956 in Psychological Review. It is often interpreted to argue that the number of objects an average human can hold in short-term memory is 7 ± 2. This has occasionally been referred to as Miller's law.

The Atkinson–Shiffrin model is a model of memory proposed in 1968 by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin. The model asserts that human memory has three separate components:

  1. a sensory register, where sensory information enters memory,
  2. a short-term store, also called working memory or short-term memory, which receives and holds input from both the sensory register and the long-term store, and
  3. a long-term store, where information which has been rehearsed in the short-term store is held indefinitely.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baddeley's model of working memory</span> Model of human memory

Baddeley's model of working memory is a model of human memory proposed by Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch in 1974, in an attempt to present a more accurate model of primary memory. Working memory splits primary memory into multiple components, rather than considering it to be a single, unified construct.

In neurology, retrograde amnesia (RA) is the inability to access memories or information from before an injury or disease occurred. RA differs from a similar condition called anterograde amnesia (AA), which is the inability to form new memories following injury or disease onset. Although an individual can have both RA and AA at the same time, RA can also occur on its own; this 'pure' form of RA can be further divided into three types: focal, isolated, and pure RA. RA negatively affects an individual's episodic, autobiographical, and declarative memory, but they can still form new memories because RA leaves procedural memory intact. Depending on its severity, RA can result in either temporally graded or more permanent memory loss. However, memory loss usually follows Ribot's law, which states that individuals are more likely to lose recent memories than older memories. Diagnosing RA generally requires using an Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI) and observing brain structure through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a computed tomography scan (CT), or electroencephalography (EEG).

Information processing theory is the approach to the study of cognitive development evolved out of the American experimental tradition in psychology. Developmental psychologists who adopt the information processing perspective account for mental development in terms of maturational changes in basic components of a child's mind. The theory is based on the idea that humans process the information they receive, rather than merely responding to stimuli. This perspective uses an analogy to consider how the mind works like a computer. In this way, the mind functions like a biological computer responsible for analyzing information from the environment. According to the standard information-processing model for mental development, the mind's machinery includes attention mechanisms for bringing information in, working memory for actively manipulating information, and long-term memory for passively holding information so that it can be used in the future. This theory addresses how as children grow, their brains likewise mature, leading to advances in their ability to process and respond to the information they received through their senses. The theory emphasizes a continuous pattern of development, in contrast with cognitive-developmental theorists such as Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development that thought development occurs in stages at a time.

In psychology and neuroscience, memory span is the longest list of items that a person can repeat back in correct order immediately after presentation on 50% of all trials. Items may include words, numbers, or letters. The task is known as digit span when numbers are used. Memory span is a common measure of working memory and short-term memory. It is also a component of cognitive ability tests such as the WAIS. Backward memory span is a more challenging variation which involves recalling items in reverse order.

Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or brain diseases, but it can also be temporarily caused by the use of various sedative and hypnotic drugs. The memory can be either wholly or partially lost due to the extent of damage that is caused.

Nelson Cowan is the Curators' Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri. He specializes in working memory, the small amount of information held in mind and used for language processing and various kinds of problem solving. To overcome conceptual difficulties that arise for models of information processing in which different functions occur in separate boxes, Cowan proposed a more organically organized "embedded processes" model. Within it, representations held in working memory comprise an activated subset of the representations held in long-term memory, with a smaller subset held in a more integrated form in the current focus of attention. Other work has been on the developmental growth of working memory capacity and the scientific method. His work, funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1984, has been cited over 41,000 times according to Google Scholar. The work has resulted in over 250 peer-reviewed articles, over 60 book chapters, 2 sole-authored books, and 4 edited volumes.

Working memory training is intended to improve a person's working memory. Working memory is a central intellectual faculty, linked to IQ, ageing, and mental health. It has been claimed that working memory training programs are effective means, both for treating specific medical conditions associated with working memory deficit, and for general increase in cognitive capacity among healthy neurotypical adults.

The development of memory is a lifelong process that continues through adulthood. Development etymologically refers to a progressive unfolding. Memory development tends to focus on periods of infancy, toddlers, children, and adolescents, yet the developmental progression of memory in adults and older adults is also circumscribed under the umbrella of memory development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memory</span> Faculty of mind to store and retrieve data

Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, it would be impossible for language, relationships, or personal identity to develop. Memory loss is usually described as forgetfulness or amnesia.

In psychology, confabulation is a memory error consisting of the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world. It is generally associated with certain types of brain damage or a specific subset of dementias. While still an area of ongoing research, the basal forebrain is implicated in the phenomenon of confabulation. People who confabulate present with incorrect memories ranging from subtle inaccuracies to surreal fabrications, and may include confusion or distortion in the temporal framing of memories. In general, they are very confident about their recollections, even when challenged with contradictory evidence.

Incidental memory is defined as the ability to acquire and recall information that was unintentionally encoded and stored. It describes how memory formation occurs incidentally as a byproduct of engaging in other activities without conscious and deliberate efforts to remember and meaningfully process the information.

Sex differences in cognition are widely studied in the current scientific literature. Biological and genetic differences in combination with environment and culture have resulted in the cognitive differences among males and females. Among biological factors, hormones such as testosterone and estrogen may play some role mediating these differences. Among differences of diverse mental and cognitive abilities, the largest or most well known are those relating to spatial abilities, social cognition and verbal skills and abilities.

Suparna Rajaram, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Stony Brook University, is an Indian-born cognitive psychologist and expert on memory and amnesia. Rajaram served as Chair of the Governing Board of the Psychonomic Society (2008) and as president of the Association for Psychological Science (2017–2018). Along with Judith Kroll and Randi Martin, Rajaram co-founded the organization Women in Cognitive Science in 2001, with the aim of improving the visibility of contributions of women to cognitive science. In 2019, she was an inaugural recipient of Psychonomic Society's Clifford T. Morgan Distinguished Leadership Award for significant contributions and sustained leadership in the discipline of cognitive psychology.

Randi Martin is the Elma Schneider Professor of Psychology at Rice University and Director of the T. L. L. Temple Foundation Neuroplasticity Research Laboratory. With Suparna Rajaram and Judith Kroll, Martin co-founded Women in Cognitive Science in 2001, an organization supported in part through the National Science Foundation's ADVANCE Leadership program. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Society of Experimental Psychologists (SEP).

References

  1. ↑ "International Directory of Psychologists, Exclusive of the U.S.A." 1966.
  2. 1 2 Baddeley, Alan (13 September 2018). Working Memories: Postmen, Divers and the Cognitive Revolution. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-317-23852-2.
  3. ↑ "Interview with Alan Baddeley | The Psychologist". thepsychologist.bps.org.uk. Archived from the original on 17 November 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  4. ↑ "Baddeley, Alan - Psychology, The University of York". www.york.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  5. ↑ Baddeley, Alan David (1981). Measures and measurements in stochastic geometry (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC   556713452.
  6. ↑ University of Essex, "Honorary Graduates" http://www.essex.ac.uk/honorary_graduates/hg/default.aspx#1999 Archived 19 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine retrieved March 2013
  7. ↑ "University of Plymouth honorary doctorates". University of Plymouth honorary doctorates. 2000. Archived from the original on 9 December 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  8. ↑ Bristol, University of. "Alan Baddley is unknown | Graduation | University of Bristol". www.bris.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  9. 1 2 Baddeley, Alan D.; Hitch, Graham (1 January 1974), Bower, Gordon H. (ed.), Working Memory, Psychology of Learning and Motivation, vol. 8, Academic Press, pp. 47–89, doi:10.1016/S0079-7421(08)60452-1, ISBN   9780125433082 , retrieved 3 July 2020
  10. ↑ Baddeley, Alan (1 November 2000). "The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory?". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 4 (11): 417–423. doi: 10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01538-2 . ISSN   1364-6613. PMID   11058819. S2CID   14333234.
  11. 1 2 Baddeley, Alan D.; Thomson, Neil; Buchanan, Mary (1 December 1975). "Word length and the structure of short-term memory". Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 14 (6): 575–589. doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(75)80045-4. ISSN   0022-5371.
  12. ↑ Baddeley, Alan; Wilson, Barbara (1 April 1988). "Frontal amnesia and the dysexecutive syndrome". Brain and Cognition. 7 (2): 212–230. doi:10.1016/0278-2626(88)90031-0. ISSN   0278-2626. PMID   3377900. S2CID   26954876.
  13. ↑ Baddeley, Alan; Wilson, Barbara A. (1 January 2002). "Prose recall and amnesia: implications for the structure of working memory". Neuropsychologia. 40 (10): 1737–1743. doi:10.1016/S0028-3932(01)00146-4. ISSN   0028-3932. PMID   11992661. S2CID   22404837.
  14. ↑ Baddeley, Alan (8 September 2017). Exploring Working Memory: Selected works of Alan Baddeley. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-351-61852-6.
  15. ↑ Baddeley, A. D. (1966). "Influence of depth on the manual dexterity of free divers: A comparison between open sea and pressure chamber testing". Journal of Applied Psychology. 50 (1): 81–85. doi:10.1037/h0022822. ISSN   1939-1854. PMID   5905114.
  16. ↑ Baddeley, A. D. (1966). "Time-Estimation at Reduced Body-Temperature". The American Journal of Psychology. 79 (3): 475–479. doi:10.2307/1420890. ISSN   0002-9556. JSTOR   1420890. PMID   5968486.
  17. ↑ Godden, D. R.; Baddeley, A. D. (1975). "Context-Dependent Memory in Two Natural Environments: On Land and Underwater". British Journal of Psychology. 66 (3): 325–331. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1975.tb01468.x. ISSN   2044-8295.
  18. ↑ "Historic overview". www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  19. ↑ "Fellows". Royal Society. Archived from the original on 30 November 2010. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
  20. ↑ "Alan David Baddeley". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  21. ↑ "APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions". American Psychological Association. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  22. ↑ "Lifetime Achievement | BPS". www.bps.org.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  23. ↑ Department of Psychology University of York. "Professor Alan Baddeley to receive prestigious international award". University of York. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  24. ↑ MacPherson, Sarah E.; Turner, Martha S.; Bozzali, Marco; Cipolotti, Lisa; Shallice, Tim (March 2016). "The Doors and People Test: The Effect of Frontal Lobe Lesions on Recall and Recognition Memory Performance". Neuropsychology. 30 (3): 332–337. doi:10.1037/neu0000240. ISSN   0894-4105. PMC   4768598 . PMID   26752123.
  25. ↑ Gathercole, Susan E.; Willis, Catherine S.; Baddeley, Alan D.; Emslie, Hazel (1 June 1994). "The children's test of nonword repetition: A test of phonological working memory". Memory. 2 (2): 103–127. doi:10.1080/09658219408258940. ISSN   0965-8211. PMID   7584287.
  26. ↑ Wall, Claudia de; Wilson, Barbara A.; Baddeley, Alan D. (1 June 1994). "The Extended Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test: A Measure of Everyday Memory Performance in Normal Adults". Memory. 2 (2): 149–166. doi:10.1080/09658219408258942. ISSN   0965-8211. PMID   7584289.
  27. ↑ Kopelman, M. D.; Wilson, B. A.; Baddeley, A. D. (1 October 1989). "The autobiographical memory interview: A new assessment of autobiographical and personal semantic memory in amnesic patients". Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. 11 (5): 724–744. doi:10.1080/01688638908400928. ISSN   0168-8634. PMID   2808661.
  28. ↑ Visual patterns test : a test of short-term visual recall. Della Sala, Sergio., Thames Valley Test Company. Bury St Edmunds: Thames Valley Test Company. 1997. ISBN   1-874261-16-4. OCLC   42405532.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  29. ↑ Saxton, Judith A.; Ratcliff, Graham; Dodge, Hiroko; Pandav, Rajesh; Baddeley, Alan; Ganguli, Mary (1 December 2001). "Speed and Capacity of Language Processing Test: Normative Data From an Older American Community-Dwelling Sample". Applied Neuropsychology. 8 (4): 193–203. doi:10.1207/S15324826AN0804_1. ISSN   0908-4282. PMID   11989722. S2CID   46291957.
  30. ↑ "Interview with Alan Baddeley". GoCognitive. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  31. ↑ "ESCOP - Founding ESCoP". ESCOP. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
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