Working Memory & Cognition Lab (WoMCog)
In WoMCog we investigate working memory and broader cognition, including long-term memory and metacognition. We are interested in the theoretical underpinnings of memory and cognition as well as how best to support them in real-world contexts such as the classroom, and in different groups including older adults, children, and clinical and atypical populations.
Our research encompasses a range of topics including attentional processes in working memory; cognitive offloading; autobiographical memory; supporting memory in older adulthood and in children with developmental difficulties; the use of strategies and technology to support cognitive processes; the role of working memory in following instructions; and typical and atypical development. Key funders of our research include the MRC, ESRC, ARC and the Wellcome Trust.
Meet the Team
Our Lab consists of four members of academic staff as well as our postdocs and postgraduate researchers.
Dr Ali Mair
Professor Amanda Waterman
Dr Luísa Superbia Guimarães
Dr Richard Allen,
We are involved in multiple networks and steering committees including the Born in Bradford Cohort Study, the N8 Child of the North, the Leeds Older People’s Forum, and the Network for Dementia Voices. We collaborate with academics and external partners in the UK and internationally.
Research Projects
Strategic approaches to supporting working memory
Working memory plays a central role in cognition yet is highly limited in capacity. We are interested in how different strategies can be applied to support its functioning.
Cognitive offloading refers to how people can strategically use the environment to reduce the cognitive demands of a task. We are interested in whether we can apply the principles of cognitive offloading to support children in the classroom; how task difficulty and task reward affect adults’ offloading behaviour; and, with colleagues at the University of Queensland and University College London, we are exploring the causes and consequences of offloading behaviour in children (funded by the Australian Research Council).
Cognitive strategies can also be brought to bear on a task. We are interested in the strategies people use when confronted with working memory tasks, and what approaches might best support performance in different contexts and populations. For example, we are exploring strategic approaches to visual working memory in younger and older adults with colleagues at University of Strathclyde and University of Sheffield (funded by the ESRC).
Working memory and attention in neurotypical and diverse populations
What we attend to plays an important role in what we remember. Our work explores how directing attention towards information that is encountered in the environment or held in mind influences our memory. We aim to derive theoretical and applied insights regarding this relationship, working with different methods and populations, and examining changes across the lifespan.
For example, ongoing projects in collaboration with colleagues at University of Lancaster and University of Fribourg are exploring the mechanisms of attentional focus and working memory in neurotypical children and adults, and individuals with ADHD.
Remembering and forgetting in long-term memory
Most episodic memory research is concerned with our ability to remember specific information we encountered only once. However, repetition is ubiquitous in everyday life; this supports development of event schemas but also creates interference that potentially causes difficulty remembering event-specific details. Our work investigates the ability to remember information that is either unique to a single context or repeated across multiple similar contexts. This has implications for how we understand memory in older adults, for whom lifelong experience may mimic cognitive decline.
We are also exploring how long-term memory and forgetting may be affected in different populations, including people with epilepsy. Such individuals often report experiencing problems with their memory. Our research aims to understand these difficulties and how to identify them through development of appropriate tests, in collaboration with colleagues at University of York, Lancaster University, and Leeds Beckett University.
If you are interested in any of our projects, have any questions, or would like to contact us about our research, we’d love you to get in touch. We are also interested in hearing from potential PhD students.
Email: womcog@leeds.ac.uk