Is the Episodic Buffer of Baddeley independent of the Central Executive? A new measure of the Episodic Buffer

• Vila Chaves, José Óscar ^[1] ; Gutiérrez Martínez, Francisco ^[1] ; García Madruga, Juan Antonio ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

     Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

     Madrid, España

     
• Localización: Anales de psicología, ISSN-e 1695-2294, ISSN 0212-9728, Vol. 37, Nº. 2 (May - September), 2021, págs. 378-392
• Idioma: varios idiomas
• DOI: 10.6018/analesps.344391
• Títulos paralelos:
  • ¿El Retén Episódico de Baddeley es independiente del Ejecutivo Central? Una nueva medida del Retén Episódico
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    El Retén Episódico (RE) está tomando un creciente papel central en las explicaciones sobre el funcionamiento de la memoria operativa. De hecho, los últimos estudios de Baddeley y sus colaboradores sitúan al RE en el corazón del sistema de memoria. Recientemente la discusión también atañe a si este componente de la memoria operativa presenta una naturaleza independiente respecto a los recursos del ejecutivo central. Algunos estudios muestran como en tareas automatizadas, la construcción y mantenimiento de elementos almacenados en el RE no requieren de recursos desde el ejecutivo central.

    El presente trabajo pretende analizar esta cuestión para lo que se toman diferentes variables y se ha diseñado un nuevo test para medir el EB. En este test de doble tarea, la tarea secundaria consiste en la lectura de textos sencillos que contienen palabras ocultas. Los resultados muestran como a pesar del aumento del procesamiento debido al incremento de la longitud de los textos, no se produce un aumento en la carga demandada por el ejecutivo central, ni en la creación de los agrupamientos de información ni en su mantenimiento. Es por ello, que pensamos que el RE bajo ciertas circunstancias es independiente del ejecutivo central.

  • English

    The Episodic Buffer (EB) is taking on an increasingly central role in explanations regarding the functioning of working memory. In fact, in the most recent studies by Baddeley and his collaborators, the EB has situated itself at the core of this memory system. Recently under discussion is that this component of working memory seems to demonstrate an independent nature with respect to central executive resourcing. Some studies show that in automatic tasks the creation and maintenance of elements stored in the episodic buffer do not require resources from the central executive.

    The current work attempts to evaluate this assumption for what different variables are taken and a new test has been developed to measure the EB. In this double task test, the secondary task consists of reading short simple texts that contain missing words. The results show that further processing due to increasing the length of the texts does not correspond to higher load demands made on the central executive, nor in the creation (organization) of chucks or their maintenance. Thus, we believe the EB is under certain circumstances independent of the central executive.         

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