Cross-modal binding and working memory

Abstract

We examine the role of general attention in the binding of colour and shape across the visual and verbal modalities. Three experiments studied the effects of concurrent tasks on the binding and retention of either unified visual stimuli, namely coloured shapes, or cross-modal stimuli in which one feature involved visual and the other auditory presentation. Performance accuracy was broadly equivalent across conditions, and was unimpaired by spatial tapping but impaired by backward counting. The decrement was however, no greater for the cross-modal binding conditions, suggesting that the act of binding is not itself attention demanding. Implications for this unexpected finding are discussed.