La actualización de la información en la memoria de trabajodiferencias asociadas a la edad y efectos de un programa de entrenamiento

Abstract

This dissertation presents three different studies which were designed to examine the functioning of working memory updating (WMU) and, more specifically, its different components. Two main issues were addressed: age- related changes in WMU and the feasibility of training this process. The first study was carried out to analyze age-related differences in WMU components. Results showed that retrieval was the component that contributed to determine to a greater extent these differences. The second study aimed to examine the specific functioning of retrieval component. It was concluded that accessing an element in working memory could involve at least two independent sub-processes. The third study analyzed the effectiveness of a WMU training program. This experiment showed some specific improvement in a task similar to the ones trained. This gain was explained in terms of learned strategies.