Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39019705›Full record

ReviewTrends in cognitive sciences2024

Is working memory domain-general or domain-specific?

Nazbanou Nozari, Randi C Martin

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Trends in cognitive sciences, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
10citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Motor working memory.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2026
    Review
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Neural Distinction between Visual Word and Object Recognition: An fMRI Study Using Pictographs.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  8. Why does the brain matter for education?The British journal of educational psychology · 2025
    Article
  9. Article
  10. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Nazbanou NozariDepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA; Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA. Electronic address: bnozari@iu.edu.
Randi C MartinDepartment of Psychological Sciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.

Funding

Language and neural recovery from stroke: Role of selection and working memoryR01DC014976 · NIDCD · BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · PI SCHNUR, TATIANA TAMARA · 2016 to 2020
$2.6M
NIDCD NIH HHS R01 DC014976
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Given the fundamental role of working memory (WM) in all domains of cognition, a central question has been whether WM is domain-general. However, the term 'domain-general' has been used in different, and sometimes misleading, ways. By reviewing recent evidence and biologically plausible models of WM, we show that the level of domain-generality varies substantially between three facets of WM: in terms of computations, WM is largely domain-general. In terms of neural correlates, it contains both domain-general and domain-specific elements. Finally, in terms of application, it is mostly domain-specific. This variance encourages a shift of focus towards uncovering domain-general computational principles and away from domain-general approaches to the analysis of individual differences and WM training, favoring newer perspectives, such as training-as-skill-learning.

Indexed as

Memory, Short-TermBrainCognitionHumansbrain trainingdomain-generalityneural correlatesresource modelsworking memory

Identifiers

PMID39019705
PMCPMC11540753

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.