Binding spatial location and stimulus identity in short-term memory.

Marina Caprio,Juliana Pardo Moura Campos Godoy,Cesar Galera

doi:10.3922/j.psns.2010.1.016

Abstract

In the working memory model, phonological and visuospatial information are stored by separate and independent systems. However, sometimes binding of visual and verbal information must occur. This study investigated whether these memory systems cooperate in the recall of spatial location of a stimulus defined by both types of information. Participants memorized the spatial locations in which name-and-face pairs were presented and either recalled the position of a test stimulus in which the two types of information were always present (Experiment 1) or recalled the position of a test stimulus that non-predictively contained either the visual or verbal information (Experiment 2). The results showed no cooperation between visuospatial and phonological systems when both types of information were present in the test stimulus. Rather, a clear preference for verbal information was found (Experiment 1). When the test stimulus contained only one type of information, recall based on both verbal and visual information was impaired (Experiment 2). These results suggest that visual and verbal information are not automatically integrated into memory and that storage capacity is smaller for integrated information than for isolated information.

Highlights

Baddeley and Hitch (1974) studied working memory with special attention on the fractioning of this memory system into basic subsystems specialized for storing different types of information
We investigated whether memory for binding between location and the identity of an event is facilitated if the identity of the event is defined by both verbal and visual information
We attempted to determine whether the availability of verbal and visual information would be able to improve performance on a spatial location task (Walker, Hitch, & Duroe, 1993), in which the participant is instructed to memorize four stimuli presented in random temporal and spatial order on a monitor screen and, after a retention interval, recall the original location of the presented test stimulus

Summary

Introduction

This working memory model consisting of two storage systems (i.e., the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad) has a weakness when it is necessary to integrate the information present in the storage systems and in long-term memory into a single complex representation. We attempted to determine whether the availability of verbal and visual information would be able to improve performance on a spatial location task (Walker, Hitch, & Duroe, 1993), in which the participant is instructed to memorize four stimuli presented in random temporal and spatial order on a monitor screen and, after a retention interval, recall the original location of the presented test stimulus. Performing this task requires the bound storage of the location and identity of four events until the test stimulus is presented.

Results

Methods

Discussion