Deadlines and Memory Limitations

Interference and memory capacity limitations.

Working memory (WM) is thought to have a fixed and limited capacity. However, the origins of these capacity limitations are debated, and generally attributed to active, attentional processes. Here, we show that the existence of interference among items in memory mathematically guarantees fixed and limited capacity limits under very general conditions, irrespective of any processing assumptions....

Memory Limitations in

Limitations and chances of working memory training

Recent studies show controversial results on the trainability of working memory (WM) capacity being a limiting factor of human cognition. In order to contribute to this open question we investigated if participants improve in trained tasks and whether gains generalize to untrained WM tasks, mathematical problem solving and intelligence tests. 83 adults trained over a three week period (7.5 hour...

Deadlines and distractions

We consider a task, demanding a sequence of efforts, that must be completed by a deadline. Effort is not contractible. Agents face shocks to their opportunity cost of time and are sometimes distracted from work. We show that agents who are often distracted may outperform agents who are distracted less often. The reason is that anticipation of distractions induces agents to start earlier for pre...

Reputational bargaining and deadlines

I introduce irrational types, who are committed to their demands, into a bargaining model with an uncertain deadline for agreement. Rational agents imitate these demands, hoping to benefit from a “tough” reputation. When irrational types are committed to fixed demands and agents are patient, this provides an explanation for “deadline effects” in bargaining: agreement is “U-shaped”, occurring ei...