Dissociation between appearance and location within visuo-spatial working memory

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated separation between systems supporting memory for appearance and memory for location. However, the interpretation of these results is complicated by a confound occurring because of the simultaneous presentation of objects in multiple-item arrays when assessing memory for appearance and the sequential presentation of items when assessing memory for location. This paper reports an experiment in which sequential or simultaneous modes of presentation were factorially manipulated with memory for visual appearance or memory for location. Spatial interference (tapping) or visual interference (dynamic visual noise) were presented during retention. Appearance versus location interacted with the type of interference task, but mode of presentation did not. These results are consistent with the view that different subsystems within visuo-spatial working memory support memory for appearance and memory for location.

Keywords:

• Working memory
• Visual memory
• Spatial memory
• Short-term memory

Stephen Darling is now at University of Aberdeen, UK. The work reported in this manuscript has been partly funded by Grant CZB/4/346 awarded by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) to Sergio Della Sala and Robert H. Logie, and on which Stephen Darling was the named Research Fellow. The authors wish to thank Kristina Keeley and Elaine Niven for their help collecting these data.