Modality specificity and integration in working memory: Insights from visuospatial bootstrapping.

Abstract

The question of how meaningful associations between verbal and spatial information might be utilized to facilitate working memory performance is potentially highly instructive for models of memory function. The present study explored how separable processing capacities within specialized domains might each contribute to this, by examining the disruptive impacts of simple verbal and spatial concurrent tasks on young adults' recall of visually presented digit sequences encountered either in a single location or within a meaningful spatial "keypad" configuration. The previously observed advantage for recall in the latter condition (the "visuospatial bootstrapping effect") consistently emerged across 3 experiments, indicating use of familiar spatial information in boosting verbal memory. The magnitude of this effect interacted with concurrent activity; articulatory suppression during encoding disrupted recall to a greater extent when digits were presented in single locations (Experiment 1), while spatial tapping during encoding had a larger impact on the keypad condition and abolished the visuospatial bootstrapping advantage (Experiment 2). When spatial tapping was performed during recall (Experiment 3), no task by display interaction was observed. Outcomes are discussed within the context of the multicomponent model of working memory, with a particular emphasis on cross-domain storage in the episodic buffer (Baddeley, 2000).

Examining the role of working memory resources in following spoken instructions

“…These findings suggest that memory for instructions, including binding movements with objects, at least partly relies on visuospatial WM, perhaps through orienting attention to objects while building a sequential representation of spatially coded movements. This is consistent with the finding of a previous study that visuospatial WM capacity predicted the learning of new motor sequences (Bo & Seidler, 2009), and is also in line with the suggestion that successful verbal-visuospatial binding within the episodic buffer draws on spatial working memory resources (Allen, Havelka, Falcon, Evans, & Darling, 2015). 25 Running head: Working memory in spoken instructions Across all three experiments, a reliable enactment benefit emerged, consistent with research in children (Gathercole et al, 2008) and using written instruction with young adults (Koriat, Ben-Zur, & Nussbaum, 1990;Yang et al, 2014).…”

Retrieval and Monitoring Processes during Visual Working Memory: An ERP Study of the Benefit of Visual Semantics

“…These finding do not seem compatible with our original predictions. Allen et al (2015) provided evidence that meaningful multimodal coding may involve processes occurring at the encoding phase (see also Riby and Orme, 2013). This perhaps leaves the same processes to be employed in retrieval of the two stimulus sets and a richer memory representation being more readily available for the high semantic stimuli (indexed by behavioral performance).…”

“…In a similar context, Allen and colleagues investigated the beneficial effect of meaningful spatial layouts (a well-known keypad) for verbal working memory performance (Allen et al, 2015; see also, Darling and Havelka, 2010; Darling et al, 2012). Allen et al showed that spatial interference during the encoding phase, but not the recall phase, removed the positive effect of spatial semantics.…”

Memory integration in amnesia: Prior knowledge supports verbal short-term memory

“…The experimental stimuli and procedure were modeled on the studies of (Allen et al, In press; Darling et al, 2012, 2014; Darling and Havelka, 2010). Sequences of six digits were created in which the digits 0–9 were randomly sampled without replacement.…”

“…Specifically, when subjects are presented with sequences of digits in a spatial array, immediate verbal recall of these digits (akin to a digit span test) improves when digits are presented in a familiar visuospatial context (a typical keypad display) compared to an unfamiliar visuospatial context (an atypical keypad display; Allen et al, In press; Darling et al, 2012, 2014; Darling and Havelka, 2010). This ‘visuospatial bootstrapping effect’ is thought to reflect facilitated recall when verbal digit information can be linked to pre-existing visuospatial representations.…”