Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity and Dual-Process Theories of the Mind.

TLDR

Dual‑process theories of the mind, which posit that behavior results from the interaction of automatic and controlled processes, are ubiquitous in psychology. The authors investigate how individual differences in attentional control capacity contribute to working memory capacity and explore the broad implications of this for dual‑process theories across social, personality, cognitive, and clinical psychology, proposing new research directions.

Abstract

Dual-process theories of the mind are ubiquitous in psychology. A central principle of these theories is that behavior is determined by the interplay of automatic and controlled processing. In this article, the authors examine individual differences in the capacity to control attention as a major contributor to differences in working memory capacity (WMC). The authors discuss the enormous implications of this individual difference for a host of dual-process theories in social, personality, cognitive, and clinical psychology. In addition, the authors propose several new areas of investigation that derive directly from applying the concept of WMC to dual-process theories of the mind.