Keynote Speaker

Alessandra SOUZA

Professor at the University of Porto

The Strategic Mind: Navigating the Limits of Working Memory

Human information processing capacity is notoriously limited. Yet, we are not merely passive victims of these cognitive constraints; we can strategically manage our limited resources. This talk outlines how people use cognitive strategies to alleviate the severe constraints of working memory (WM) — the system at the center of purposeful thought and action. Research shows that individuals are often proactive, adapting their strategies on a trial-by-trial basis and leveraging different cognitive capacities to increase task performance. I will demonstrate how attention, conceptual knowledge, and chunking can significantly improve WM performance; discuss their underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions. I will also discuss why some strategies — such as articulatory rehearsal — are surprisingly inefficient despite their popularity. Overall, the extant evidence suggests that effective WM management depends less on the choice of a single strategy and more on when and how it is used. The presentation culminates in an exploration of the "strategy paradox": the observation that self-selected strategies often correlate with success, while rigid instructions often fail, highlighting the vital role of adaptive strategy switching. These findings provide a nuanced view of a mind that is limited in capacity but remarkably flexible in its management.