Randall Engle

Professor of Psychology

Education

Ph.D. (1973) Experimental Psychology The Ohio State University

Research Interests

Individual differences in attention control and other executive functions. Ranges from brain mechanisms in thee differences to use of measures of attention control to select pilots and air traffic controllers.

About

I am interested working memory capacity and the relationship of that concept to the concept of attention control. I have argued that individual differences in the construct measured as working memory capacity reflects differences in the ability to control attention to internally generated and externally elicited representations and that differences in this ability is an important component of general fluid intelligence (Engle & Kane, 2004). I have also entertained the likelihood that these differences reflect functioning of the normal frontal lobes which in turn reflect genetic differences in the regulation of dopamine and possibly other neurotransmitters.

Selected Publications

• Harrison, T. L., Shipstead, Z., & Engle, R. W. (2015). Why is working memory capacity related to matrix reasoning tasks?. Memory & Cognition, 43, 389-396.

• Foster, J. L., Shipstead, Z., Harrison, T. L., Hicks, K. L., Redick, T. S., & Engle, R. W. (2014). Shortened complex span tasks can reliably measure working memory capacity. Memory & Cognition, 43, 226-236.

• Shipstead, Z., Lindsey, D. R., Marshall, R. L., & Engle, R. W. (2014). The mechanisms of working memory capacity: Primary memory, secondary memory, and attention control. Journal of Memory and Language, 72, 116-141.

• Harrison, T. L., Shipstead, Z., Hicks, K. L., Hambrick, D. Z., Redick, T. S., & Engle, R. W. (2013). Working memory training may increase working memory capacity but not fluid intelligence. Psychological Science, 24, 2409-2419.

• Redick, T. S., Shipstead, Z., Harrison, T. L., Hicks, K. L., Fried, D. E., Hambrick, D. Z., & Engle, R. W. (2013). No evidence of intelligence improvement after working memory training: a randomized, placebo-controlled study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142, 359-379.

• Shipstead, Z., Redick, T. S., & Engle, R. W. (2012). Is working memory training effective?. Psychological Bulletin, 138, 628-654.

• Engle, R. W. (2010). Role of working‐memory capacity in cognitive control.Current Anthropology, 51, 17-26.