Scientific advance and theory integration in working memory
Comment on Oberauer et al. (2018)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 18092086 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert H Logie, Robert Logie (0000-0003-4532-9312, University of Edinburgh, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 144 |
| Issue | 9 |
| Pages | 959-962 |
| Publication date | 2018-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychological Bulletin (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-2909 • E-ISSN: 1939-1455 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/bul0000162 |
| PMID | 30148380 |
| OpenAlex | W2889035488 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 4 |
Oberauer et al. (2018) report the results of an ambitious project to identify key or "benchmark" empirical findings that have been associated with the concept of working memory. This commentary questions the utility of setting different levels of priority for previous findings for the purposes of advancing theoretical understanding. This gives undue weight to well-established findings that are studied by large numbers of researchers, at the expense of new, or less well researched findings that could be just as, if not more important for theory development. The risk from prioritizing is that ever larger numbers of researchers will focus on well known findings, and how these findings might be explained by favored theoretical approaches. It may act to inhibit innovation, new discoveries and the development of more integrated rather than ever more fractionated theories. An unprioritized, and regularly updated repository of working memory findings with cross referencing of consistency and inconsistency across paradigms, phenomena, and theoretical frameworks would be much more valuable for facilitating new theoretical and empirical advances. (PsycINFO Database Record
Benchmark (surveying) · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Consistency (knowledge bases) · Data science · Empirical research · Epistemology · Focus (optics) · Key (lock) · MEDLINE · Political science · PsycINFO · Working memory · Artificial Intelligence · Cognitive Science and Mapping · Computer Science · Mental Health Research Topics · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2020 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |