Iconic memory and central processing capacity

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted to assess whether or not iconic memory is influenced by demands placed upon central processing capacity. In Experiment 1 S was required to store material in short-term memory while performing an iconic memory task. In Experiments 2 and 3 S performed an auditory classification task concurrently with iconic storage. The three experiments did not reveal any significant impairment of iconic memory as a function of performing a subsidiary task. Similarly, performance on the subsidiary tasks did not suffer as a result of the concurrent iconic memory task.