Resource-sharing in multiple-component working memory.

Jason M. Doherty,Robert H. Logie

doi:10.3758/s13421-016-0626-7

Abstract

Working memory research often focuses on measuring the capacity of the system and how it relates to other cognitive abilities. However, research into the structure of working memory is less concerned with an overall capacity measure but rather with the intricacies of underlying components and their contribution to different tasks. A number of models of working memory structure have been proposed, each with different assumptions and predictions, but none of which adequately accounts for the full range of data in the working memory literature. We report 2 experiments that investigated the effects of load manipulations on dual-task verbal temporary memory and spatial processing. Crucially, we manipulated cognitive load around the measured memory span of each individual participant. We report a clear effect of increasing memory load on processing accuracy, but only when memory load is increased above each participant’s measured memory span. However, increasing processing load did not affect memory performance. We argue that immediate verbal memory may rely both on a temporary phonological store and on activated traces in long-term memory, with the latter deployed to support memory performance for supraspan lists and when a high memory load is coupled with a processing task. We propose that future research should tailor the load manipulations to the capacities of individual participants and suggest that contrasts between models of working memory may be more apparent than real.

Highlights

Working memory research often focuses on measuring the capacity of the system and how it relates to other cognitive abilities
This supports Logie’s (2011) hypothesis regarding recruitment of domaingeneral resources when working memory components are under a load that exceeds their capacity
The effect of memory load on spatial processing accuracy can be interpreted as the effect of the reallocation of a processing resource once the phonological loop’s capacity is exceeded

Summary

Introduction

Working memory research often focuses on measuring the capacity of the system and how it relates to other cognitive abilities. Further evidence that temporary memory does not necessarily draw on processing capacity in working memory has come from a series of studies (e.g., Anderson, Bucks, Bayliss, & Della Sala, 2011; Baddeley, Logie, Bressi, Della Sala, & Spinnler, 1986; Baddeley, Bressi, Della Sala, Logie, & Spinnler, 1991; Cocchini, Logie, Della Sala, MacPherson, & Baddeley, 2002; Logie et al, 2004; MacPherson, Della Sala, Logie, & Wilcock, 2007; Salthouse, Fristoe, Lineweaver, & Coon, 1995) demonstrating that when healthy participants are asked to perform two distinct tasks concurrently (such as oral serial ordered recall of aurally presented digit sequences together with a perceptuomotor tracking task), performance of each task is very little different from when performing only digit recall or performing only perceptuomotor tracking This accumulated evidence suggests further that the processes thought to support oral serial recall, such as subvocal rehearsal, can operate even when a demanding gestural-motor task is being performed at the same time. A similar result was reported by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) when they combined maintenance of a six-letter list with an interpolated reasoning task that varied in difficulty

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