1. Andrade, J. Working Memory in Context (Psychology, Hove, Sussex, 2001).
2. Miyake, A. & Shah, P. (eds) Models of Working Memory: Mechanisms of Active Maintenance and Executive Control (Cambridge Univ. Press, New York, 1999).
3. Conway, A. R. A., Jarrold, C., Kane, M. J., Miyake, A. & Towse, J. N. Variation in Working Memory (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, in the press). References 1–3 provide excellent accounts of the current states of research on working memory, with reference 2 representing a range of theoretical approaches and highlighting their common features, reference 1 containing the view of a range of young British researchers on the strengths and weaknesses of the multi-component model, and reference 3 having more North American contributors and better reflecting approaches based on individual differences.
4. Miyake, A. & Shah, P. in Models of Working Memory: Mechanisms of Active Maintenance and Executive Control (eds Miyake, A. & Shah, P.) 28–61 (Cambridge Univ. Press, New York, 1999).
5. Cowan, N. in Models of Working Memory: Mechanisms of Active Maintenance and Executive Control (eds Miyake, A. & Shah, P.) 62–101 (Cambridge Univ. Press, New York, 1999). An alternative approach to working memory that focuses on attentional control. This leads to a different emphasis, but is not in any fundamental sense incompatible with a multi-component model.