ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the use of working storage and its place in the organization of cognitive behavior. It introduces the method for explicitly including working storage in descriptions of information processing routines, and discusses when to use stored data, the choice between alternative methods of obtaining the same data, and the relations between routines. The chapter describes the determinants of the sequence in which routines are used, the place of different types of working storage in different levels of cognitive organization, and the nature of context effects. It questions the nature of the limits to working storage capacity, and discusses the relation of working storage to longer-term learning. All the temporary storage occurred within the routines, and so within the routines level of organization. Stronger evidence about the longer term storage of main data items should be obtained directly from the behavioural data.
