In which case is working memory for movements affected by verbal interference? Evidence from the verbal description of movement

ABSTRACT

Current perspectives on whether verbal interference affects working memory for movements have not yet reached a consensus. This study explored the causes of this controversy to reveal the relation between working memory for movements and the phonological loop. Experiment 1 explored whether the verbal description of movement moderated the effect of verbal interference (articulatory suppression) on working memory for movements. Verbal interference only affected working memory for easy-to-describe movements (lower accuracy). Experiment 2 excluded the interpretation of familiarity to the controversy and the effect of familiarity on the results of Experiment 1. Experiment 3 verified the results of Experiment 1 with another form of verbal interference, i.e., presenting irrelevant words visually. These three experiments suggest that the phonological loop is not recruited for processing working memory for movements in nature, but the two may interact through the verbal description prestored in the long-term memory. Thus, the current study provides a certain level of support for the separable movement-based subsystem hypothesis (Smyth, M. M., Pearson, N. A., & Pendleton, L. R. (1988). Movement and working memory: Patterns and positions in space. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A: Human Experimental Psychology, 40(3), 497–514. doi:10.1080/02724988843000041).

KEYWORDS:

• Working memory for movements
• phonological loop
• verbal description
• verbal interference
• familiarity

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence this work. There is no professional or other personal interest of any nature or kind in any product, service and/or company that could be construed as influencing the position presented in, or the review of, the manuscript entitled, “In Which Case is Working Memory for Movements Affected by Verbal Interference? Evidence from the Verbal Description of Movement”.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the MOE Layout Foundation of Humanities and Social Sciences (18YJA190016).