Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The effect of presentation type on organization in visuospatial working memory (VSWM) was examined. Stimuli were presented sequentially or simultaneously at study, and participants made same/different judgements at test. The test array varied in four different spatial configuration conditions: one featuring no changes from study, one in which two items switched, one in which the same array repeated but in a different location, and one in which a completely novel test stimulus appeared. Results indicated the use of a global configuration for both simultaneous and sequential presentations and showed increased impairment of item-level knowledge with sequential presentations. Overall, these results support the use of a global configuration organization as a fundamental aspect of VSWM processing.

Keywords

Working memory Visuospatial memory

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allen

R. J.

Baddeley

A. D.

Hitch

G. J.

(2006). Is the binding of visual features in working memory resource-demanding?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 135, 298–313.

Alvarez

G. A.

Cavanagh

(2004). The capacity of visual short-term memory is set by visual information load and number of objects. Psychological Science 15, 106–111.

Alvarez

G. A.

Thompson

T. W.

(2009). Overwriting and rebinding: Why feature-switch detection tasks underestimate the binding capacity of visual working memory. Visual Cognition 17, 141–159.

Attneave

(1957). Physical determinants of the judged complexity of shapes. Journal of Experimental Psychology 53, 221–227.

Awh

Barton

Vogel

E. K.

(2007). Visual working memory represents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity. Psychological Science 18, 622–628.

Baddeley

A. D.

Hitch

G. J.

(1974). Working memory. The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory. Bower

G. H.

New York: Academic Press 8, 47–89.

Baddeley

A. D.

Logie

R. H.

(1999). Working memory: The multiple-component model. Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. Miyake

Shah

New York: Cambridge University Press 28–61.

Cowan

(2001). The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24, 87–185.

Darling

Della Sala

Logie

R. H.

(2009). Dissociation between appearance and location within visuo-spatial working memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 62, 417–425.

10.

Jiang

Olson

I. R.

Chun

M. M.

(2000). Organization of visual short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 26, 3 683–702.

11.

Lecerf

de Ribaupierre

(2005). Recognition in a visuospatial memory task: The effect of presentation. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology 17, 47–75.

12.

Logie

R. H.

(2003). Spatial and visual working memory: A mental workspace. Cognitive vision: A Special Issue of The Psychology of Learning and Motivation. Irwin

Ross

New York: Academic Press 42, 37–78.

13.

Logie

R. H.

van der Muelen

(2009). Fragmenting and integrating visuo-spatial working memory. The visual world in memory. Brockmole

J. R.

Hove, UK: Psychology Press 1–32.

14.

Luck

S. J.

Hollingworth

(2008). Visual memory New York: Oxford University Press.

15.

Pashler

(1988). Familiarity and visual change detection. Perception & Psychophysics 44, 369–378.

16.

Pearson

D. G.

Logie

R. H.

Gilhooly

K. J.

(1999). Verbal representations and spatial manipulation during mental synthesis. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology 11, 295–314.

17.

Vogel

E. K.

Woodman

G. F.

Luck

S. J.

(2001). Storage of features, conjunctions, and objects in visual working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 27, 92–114.

18.

Vogel

E. K.

Woodman

G. F.

Luck

S. J.

(2006). The time course of consolidation in visual working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 32, 1436–1451.

Encoding and representation of simultaneous and sequential arrays in visuospatial working memory

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References