Dual-task costs in working memory: An adversarial collaboration.

Abstract

Theories of working memory often disagree on the relationships between processing and storage, particularly on how heavily they rely on an attention-based limited resource. Some posit separation and specialization of resources resulting in minimal interference to memory when completing an ongoing processing task, while others argue for a greater overlap in the resources involved in concurrent tasks. Here, we present four experiments that investigated the presence or absence of dual-task costs for memory and processing. The experiments were carried in an adversarial collaboration in which researchers from three opposing theories collaboratively designed a set of experiments and provided differential predictions in line with each of their models. Participants performed delayed recall of aurally and visually presented letters and an arithmetic verification task either as single tasks or with the arithmetic verification task between presentation and recall of letter sequences. Single- and dual-task conditions were completed with and without concurrent articulatory suppression. A consistent pattern of dual-task and suppression costs was observed for memory, with smaller or null effects on processing. The observed data did not fit perfectly with any one framework, with each model having partial success in predicting data patterns. Implications for each of the models are discussed, with an aim for future research to investigate whether some combination of the models and their assumptions can provide a more comprehensive interpretation of the pattern of effects observed here and in relevant previous studies associated with each theoretical framework.

How Do Scientific Views Change? Notes From an Extended Adversarial Collaboration

“…The three theories differed regarding the conditions under which a dualtask cost might or might not appear. As reported in Doherty et al (2019), there was little to no change in performance on the arithmetic task whether participants were, or were not, asked to remember a set of letters at the same time (i.e., little or no dual-task cost). This was consistent with the multi-component theory, which predicted that behaviors controlled by separate brain modules for memory and arithmetic would not interact.…”

Neurocognitive changes after awake surgery in glioma patients: a retrospective cohort study

“…Such grouping is always complicated since intrinsically more than one concept is tapped in any task. However, neuropsychologists do share common ground in the categorization of tasks across domains [23][24][25]. We tested for robustness of our test classification by applying an alternative grouping of tests, which only resulted in minimal changes in outcomes.…”

Neural capacity limits on the responses to memory interference during working memory in young and old adults

“…Observed behavioral differences may reflect age-related declines in the availability of attention [29]. Meanwhile, the neural capacity limits bolster the idea of shared neural resources for working memory operations that draw from the same capacity limited system [30,31]. Therefore, cognitive capacity limitations of the working memory system may reflect a neural capacity which limits the engagement of compensatory neural resources resulting in the observed lower task performance levels.…”