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Behavioural evidence for separating components within visuo-spatial working memory

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Abstract

Several different sources of evidence support the idea that visuo-spatial working memory can be segregated into separate cognitive subsystems. However, the nature of these systems remains unclear. Recently we reported data from neurological patients suggesting that information about visual appearance is retained in a different subsystem from information about spatial location. In this paper we report latency data from neurologically intact participants showing an experimental double dissociation between memory for appearance and memory for location. This was achieved by use of a selective dual task interference technique. This pattern provides evidence supporting the segregation of visuo-spatial memory between two systems, one of which supports memory for stimulus appearance and the other which supports memory for spatial location.

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Notes

  1. In response to a request from one anonymous reviewer, we repeated the analysis with age as a covariate. This reduced the statistical power given the size of individual participant groups. Nevertheless, the interaction between memory task and interference type remained significant (F(2,65) = 5.15, P = 0.008, MSE = 2206.40, partial η2 = 0.14).

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Acknowledgments

The work reported in this manuscript has been partly funded by grant no. CZB/4/346 awarded by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) to S. Della Sala and R. Logie, and on which Stephen Darling is the named Research Fellow.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK

    Stephen Darling, Sergio Della Sala & Robert H. Logie

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  1. Stephen Darling
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  2. Sergio Della Sala
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  3. Robert H. Logie
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Correspondence to Stephen Darling.

Additional information

Declaration: The experiment described in this paper complies with the current law in Scotland, where the research was carried out.

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Darling, S., Della Sala, S. & Logie, R.H. Behavioural evidence for separating components within visuo-spatial working memory. Cogn Process 8, 175–181 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-007-0171-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-007-0171-1

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