Global InformationNelson Cowan information
 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. (September 2021) |
Nelson Cowan Link to image on Cowan's web site[1] | |
|---|---|
| Born | Washington, D.C., United States |
| Education | University of Michigan (BS, 1973) University of Wisconsin (MS, 1978; PhD, 1980) |
| Known for | Working memory, Attention, Cognitive development |
| Spouse | Jean Ispa |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science (2020); Honorary doctorates (University of Helsinki, Finland, 2003; University of Liège, Belgium, 2015); Society of Experimental Psychologists; President’s Faculty Award for Sustained Excellence, University of Missouri System, 2011; Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2012; Fellow, American Psychological Association and Charter Fellow, Association for Psychological Science; Golden Chalk Award, for graduate teaching and education, University of Missouri, 1999. |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychology |
| Institutions | University of Missouri |
| Thesis | Toward an understanding of morphological segmentation in unfamiliar languages (1980) |
| Doctoral advisor | Philip A. Morse |
| Other academic advisors | Lewis A. Leavitt (secondary during Ph.D.), Martin Braine (postdoctoral) |
| Website | https://memory.psych.missouri.edu/cowan.html |
Nelson Cowan is the Curators' Distinguished Professor[1] of Psychological Sciences[2] at the University of Missouri. He specializes in working memory, the small amount of information held in mind and used for language processing and various kinds of problem solving. To overcome conceptual difficulties that arise for models of information processing in which different functions occur in separate boxes, Cowan proposed a more organically organized "embedded processes" model. Within it, representations held in working memory comprise an activated subset of the representations held in long-term memory, with a smaller subset held in a more integrated form in the current focus of attention.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Other work has been on the developmental growth of working memory capacity[11] and the scientific method.[12] His work, funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1984 (primarily NICHD), has been cited over 41,000 times according to Google Scholar. The work has resulted in over 250 peer-reviewed articles, over 60 book chapters, 2 sole-authored books, and 4 edited volumes.
In addition to basic scientific work, Cowan's collaborative research related to working memory has led to clarification of the role of memory in language disorders,[13] dyslexia,[14] autism,[15] schizophrenia,[16] Parkinson's disease,[17] amnesia,[18][19] and alcoholic intoxication,[20][21] as explained further on his web site and CV.[1] For example, the work on amnesia indicates that individuals who usually cannot form new memories because of stroke or brain damage often demonstrate considerable ability to do so when the information to be memorized is surrounded by several minutes with minimal visual or acoustic interference.[22]
- ^ a b c "Nelson Cowan's web site".
- ^ "Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri".
- ^ "1988, Psychological Bulletin, Evolving conceptions of memory storage, selective attention, and their mutual constraints within the human information processing system" (PDF).
- ^ Cowan, Nelson (1998). "1995, Attention and Memory: An Integrated Framework, Oxford Psychology Series". Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195119107.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-511910-7.
- ^ Cowan, Nelson (February 2001). "2001,Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The magical number 4 in short-term memory: a reconsideration of mental storage capacity". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 24 (1): 87–114. doi:10.1017/S0140525X01003922. PMID 11515286. S2CID 8739159.
- ^ Cowan, N.; Chen, Z.; Rouder, J. N. (2004). "2004, Psychological Science, Constant capacity in an immediate serial-recall task: a logical sequel to Miller (1956)". Psychological Science. 15 (9): 634–40. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00732.x. PMID 15327636. S2CID 11730159.
- ^ "2005/2016, Working Memory Capacity, Psychology Press/Rutledge, classic edition".
- ^ Cowan, N. (2010). "2010, Current Directions in Psychological Science, The Magical Mystery Four: How is Working Memory Capacity Limited, and Why?". Current Directions in Psychological Science. 19 (1): 51–57. doi:10.1177/0963721409359277. PMC 2864034. PMID 20445769.
- ^ Cowan, N.; Rouder, J. N.; Blume, C. L.; Saults, J. S. (2012). "2012, Psychological Review, Models of Verbal Working Memory Capacity: What Does It Take to Make Them Work?". Psychological Review. 119 (3): 480–499. doi:10.1037/a0027791. PMC 3618891. PMID 22486726.
- ^ Cowan, N. (2019). "2019, Psychological Bulletin, Short-term Memory Based on Activated Long-term Memory: A Review In Response to Norris (2017)". Psychological Bulletin. 145 (8): 822–847. doi:10.1037/bul0000199. PMC 6650160. PMID 31328941.
- ^ Cowan, N. (2016). "2016, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Working Memory Maturation: Can We Get at the Essence of Cognitive Growth?". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 11 (2): 239–64. doi:10.1177/1745691615621279. PMC 4800832. PMID 26993277.
- ^ Cowan, N.; Belletier, C.; Doherty, J. M.; Jaroslawska, A. J.; Rhodes, S.; Forsberg, A.; Naveh-Benjamin, M.; Barrouillet, P.; Camos, V.; Logie, R. H. (2020). "2020, Perspectives on Psychological Science, How Do Scientific Views Change? Notes from an Extended Adversarial Collaboration". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 15 (4): 1011–1025. doi:10.1177/1745691620906415. PMC 7334077. PMID 32511059. S2CID 214269869.
- ^ Gillam, Ronald B.; Cowan, Nelson; Marler, Jeffrey A. (1998). "Information Processing by School-Age Children With Specific Language Impairment". Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 41 (4): 913–926. doi:10.1044/jslhr.4104.913. PMID 9712137.
- ^ Cowan, N.; Hogan, T. P.; Alt, M.; Green, S.; Cabbage, K. L.; Brinkley, S.; Gray, S. (2017). "2017, Dyslexia, Short-term Memory in Childhood Dyslexia: Deficient Serial Order in Multiple Modalities". Dyslexia (Chichester, England). 23 (3): 209–233. doi:10.1002/dys.1557. PMC 5540735. PMID 28497530.
- ^ Bodner, K. E.; Cowan, N.; Christ, S. E. (2019). "2019, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Contributions of filtering and attentional allocation to working memory performance in individuals with autism spectrum disorder". Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 128 (8): 881–891. doi:10.1037/abn0000471. PMID 31599633. S2CID 204029777.
- ^ Javitt, D. C.; Strous, R. D.; Grochowski, S.; Ritter, W.; Cowan, N. (1997). "1997, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Impaired precision, but normal retention, of auditory sensory ("echoic") memory information in schizophrenia". Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 106 (2): 315–24. doi:10.1037/0021-843x.106.2.315. PMID 9131851.
- ^ Lee, E. Y.; Cowan, N.; Vogel, E. K.; Rolan, T.; Valle-Inclán, F.; Hackley, S. A. (2010). "2010, Brain, Visual working memory deficits in Parkinson's patients are due to both reduced storage capacity and impaired ability to filter out irrelevant information". Brain. 133 (9): 2677–2689. doi:10.1093/brain/awq197. PMC 2929336. PMID 20688815.
- ^ Cowan, N.; Beschin, N.; Della Sala, S. (2004). "2004, Brain, Verbal recall in amnesiacs under conditions of diminished retroactive interference". Brain: A Journal of Neurology. 127 (Pt 4): 825–34. doi:10.1093/brain/awh107. PMID 14749294.
- ^ Dewar, M.; Garcia, Y. F.; Cowan, N.; Sala, S. D. (2009). "2009, Neuropsychology, Delaying Interference Enhances Memory Consolidation in Amnesic Patients". Neuropsychology. 23 (5): 627–634. doi:10.1037/a0015568. PMC 2808210. PMID 19702416.
- ^ Saults, J. S.; Cowan, N.; Sher, K. J.; Moreno, M. V. (2007). "2007, Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, Differential Effects of Alcohol on Working Memory: Distinguishing Multiple Processes". Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology. 15 (6): 576–587. doi:10.1037/1064-1297.15.6.576. PMC 2658822. PMID 18179311.
- ^ Bartholow, B. D.; Fleming, K. A.; Wood, P. K.; Cowan, N.; Saults, J. S.; Altamirano, L.; Miyake, A.; Martins, J.; Sher, K. J. (2018). "2019, Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, Alcohol Effects on Response Inhibition: Variability across Tasks and Individuals". Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology. 26 (3): 251–267. doi:10.1037/pha0000190. PMC 5991490. PMID 29863383.
- ^ "2020, Neuropsychology, Wakeful rest benefits before and after encoding in anterograde amnesia".