Psychology 697
Cognitive Neuroscience of Working Memory
Spring 2005
In this course we emphasize the critical evaluation of topical issues and data in
working memory research. Toward this end, we also emphasize the methods of
neuroimaging, neuropsychology, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS),
and experimental psychology.
Format: Each week we discuss (at least) one article from the recent literature.
These discussions are organized as informal presentations that will give us an
opportunity to discuss and assess in detail the theory, methods, results, and
interpretation associated with that particular paper. On occasion, these discussions are
supplemented with, or supplanted by, an informal presentation of the design and/or
results from an experiment being conducted in the Postle laboratory (see section on "3
credits", below). Following the discussion of a particular paper or project, we end the
morning with an attempt to integrate what we've learned from this specific information
into the perspective of contemporary cognitive neuroscience inquiry.
Levels of participation: The class may be taken for 1, 2, or 3 credits. The
requirements for 1-credit registrants are simply to come to class having read the
assigned paper, and prepared to participate in the discussion. The additional
requirements for 2-credit registrants are to lead one of the weekly discussions, and to
write a 3-5 page paper that 1) summarizes the paper; 2) summarizes the question that it
was intended to address; and 3) proposes either a) a better way to test this question, or b)
a hypothesis that captures an important "next question" that can now be addressed and an
experimental design that would effect this hypothesis test. The additional requirements
for 3-credit registrants are to participate in a research project in the Postle laboratory that
entails at least 10 hr./wk. of research time during the Fall 2004 and Spring 2005
semesters. Three-crediters should register for Psychology 618 (Fall) and Psychology 697
(Spring); their in-class presentations will likely focus on their own experiments.
Grading:
1-credit: in-class participation
2-credit: in-class participation and the paper.
3-credit: in-class participation, paper, and research
Instructor: Brad Postle, 515 Psychology, 262-4330, postle@wisc.edu.
Office hours: by appointment.
With the exception of time-sensitive emergencies, email is the most effective and
preferred way for you to contact me.
All readings are either available for download at, or in hardcopy in room 165 (The Lab)
during the week prior to class.
Background readings
Menon & Kim (1999). Spatial and temporal limits in cognitive neuroimaging with
fMRI. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 207-216.
Aguirre & D'Esposito (1999). Experimental design for brain fMRI. In:
Functional MRI (Moonen and Bandettini, Eds.). Springer Verlag, Berlin. (pp. 369380).
January 21
Wilken and Ma (2004). A detection theory of change detection. Journal of Vision, 4,
1120-1135.
January 28
Ledbedev, Messinger, Kralik, & Wise (2004). Representation of attended versus
remembered locations in prefrontal cortex. PloS Biology, 2, 1919-1935.
February 4
Brown, DeSouza, Goltz, Ford, Menon, Goodale, and Everling (2004). Comparison of
memory- and visually-guided saccades using event-related fMRI. Journal of
Neurophysiology, 91, 873-889.
February 11
Connolly, Goodale, Goltz, & Munoz (in press). fMRI activation in the human frontal
eye field is correlated with saccadic reaction time. Journal of Neurophysiology.
February 18
Aron, Robbins, and Poldrack (2004). Inhibition and the right inferior frontal cortex.
TICS, 8, 170-177.
February 25
Takeda and Funahashi (2004). Population vector analysis of primate prefrontal
activity during spatial working memory. Cerebral Cortex, 14, 1328-1339.
March 4
Fukushima, Hasegawa, & Miyashita (2004). Prefrontal neuronal activity encodes
spatial target representations sequentially updated after nonspatial target-shift cues.
Journal of Neurophysiology, 91, 1367-1380.
March 11
Rissman, Gazzaley, and D’Esposito (2004). Measuring functional connectivity
during distinct stages of a cognitive task. NeuroImage, 23, 752-763.
March 18
Hester, Murphy, and Garavan (2004). Beyond common resources: the cortical basis for
resolving task interference. NeuroImage, 23, 202-212.
March 25
No class – Spring Break
April 1
Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005). Working memory and intelligence: the same or
difference constructs? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 30-60.
April 8
Oberauer, Schulze, Wilhelm, and Suss. (2005). Working Memory and Intelligence—
Their Correlation and Their Relation: Comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005).
Psychological Bulletin, 131, 61–65
and
Kane, Hambrick, and Conway (2005). Working Memory Capacity and Fluid Intelligence
Are Strongly Related
Constructs: Comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005). Psychological Bulletin,
131, 66–71.
and
Beier and Ackerman (2005). Working Memory and Intelligence: Different Constructs.
Reply to Oberauer et al. (2005) and Kane et al. (2005). Psychological Bulletin, 131, 66–
71.
April 15
Ravizza, Delgado, Chein, Becker, and Fiez (2004). Functional dissociations within the
inferior parietal cortex in verbal working memory. NeuroImage, 22, 562-573.
April 22
Silveri and Cappa (2003). Segregation of the neural correlates of language and
phonological short-term memory. Cortex, 39, 913-925.
April 29
Pessoa and Ungerleider (2004). Neural correlates of change detection and change
blindness in a working memory task. Cerebral Cortex, 14, 511-520.
May 6
Howard et al. (2003). Gamma oscillations correlate with working memory load in
humans. Cerebral Cortex, 13, 1369-1374.
Where to take complaints about a Teaching Assistant or Course Instructor:
Occasionally a student may have a complaint about a T.A. or course instructor. If
that happens, you should feel free to discuss the matter directly with the T.A. or
instructor. If the complaint is about the T.A. and you do not feel comfortable discussing
it with him/her, you should discuss it with the course instructor. If you do not feel the
instructor has resolved the matter to your satisfaction, then you should speak to the
Psychology Undergraduate Advisor, Ms. Arlene Davenport (Room 428 Psychology) or
the Department Chair, Professor Janet Hyde (Room 238 Psychology). You should also
speak to either of these individuals if the complaint is about the instructor and you do not
feel comfortable discussing it directly with him/her.
If you believe the T.A. or course instructor has discriminated against you because
of your religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnic background, you also may
take your complaint to the Affirmative Action Office (Room 175 Bascom Hall). If your
complaint has to do with sexual harassment, you may also take your complaint to Ms.
Arlene Davenport, the Psychology Department sexual harassment contact person.