Les séminaires du Lundi accueillent Fabien MATHY - Professeur, UMR BCL, Université Côte d'Azur

When: 8th December 11 am

Where: Salle des Voûtes 

Title: The Limits of Working Memory: It Grows but Doesn’t Develop, We Should Train It… But Can’t Really — So What Do We Do Instead?

Abstract: Do we know what drives the growth of working memory? When comparing the memorization of different materials, it seems to mature more than it develops — its capacity increases largely independently of knowledge. However, the maturation process itself is limited: babies start surprisingly high while adults remain constrained, so the age-related gains are modest. Also, unlike IQ, working memory resists the Flynn effect, showing little improvement across generations. On a larger scale, intelligence may depend on capacity, yet human history shows we manage just fine without any substantial growth of working memory. So, should we train working memory … or is there a smarter way forward?