Evidence for a central pool of general resources in working memory

Abstract

The present study addresses the existence of a central pool of domain-general resources in working memory. For this purpose, we examined interference between processing and storage activities involving information pertaining to different domain (verbal vs. visuo-spatial) while explicitly minimising representation-based interference at the peripheral level of working memory. Experiment 1 required maintenance of auditorily presented letters for further oral recall while concurrently judging visually presented spatial configurations by pressing keys. Experiment 2 required maintenance of visually presented random locations for further manual recall while concurrently judging auditorily presented words by giving oral responses. In both experiments, the cognitive load of processing was manipulated, a manipulation that clearly affected recall performance. This suggests strongly that working memory comprises a pool of domain-general attentional resources at the central level.

Keywords:

• Working memory
• Domains
• Modalities
• Attention
• Resource sharing

Notes

¹Cognitive load was manipulated by varying two factors: the number of items to be processed after each storage item and the total duration of a processing phase. This was done so as to avoid accounts of the data in terms of either one of these variables instead of in terms of their ratio.

²Although sex differences have been a significant source of controversy in the literature, our study cannot make a useful contribution to this issue. We did not systematically sample our participants on the basis of sex.

³Because the studies used the exact same tasks and stimuli, the exact same cognitive load manipulations, the exact same scoring and a similar subject pool, such comparison is justified.