ABSTRACT

The central executive lies at the heart of Baddeley’s theory of working memory, and is frequently called upon to explain research findings. This holds true for studies in both laboratory and applied settings. What exactly does the central executive do, then? That is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. Much of this difficulty arises because the executive has been characterised in rather different ways, with these views often considered independently of each other. Furthermore, experimental data that pin the executive down are hard to come by. The present chapter reviews and brings together various interpretations of central executive functioning, while an experiment involving a novel cognitive task is described that points up the rather restrictive nature of the term ‘executive capacity’. The chapter concludes by commenting briefly on the implications of a working memory model in which the executive does not play a major part.