Abstract
Recently, investigators have suggested that visual working memory operates in a manner unaffected by the retention of verbal material. We question that conclusion on the basis of a simple dual-task experiment designed to rule out phonological memory and to identify a more central faculty as the source of a shared limitation. With a visual working memory task in which two arrays of color squares were to be compared, performance was unaffected by concurrent recitation of a two-digit list or a known seven-digit sequence. However, visual working memory performance decreased markedly when paired with a load of seven random digits. This was not a simple tradeoff, inasmuch as errors on the visual array and high digit load tasks tended to co-occur. Working memory for digits and visual information thus are both subject to at least one type of shared limit, not just domain-specific limitations. The nature of the shared limit is discussed.
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This research was supported by NIH Grant R01 HD-21338 awarded to N.C.
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Morey, C.C., Cowan, N. When visual and verbal memories compete: Evidence of cross-domain limits in working memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 11, 296–301 (2004). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196573
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196573