Spatial-positional association of response codes is modulated by the number of items in working memory

Abstract

The SPoARC (spatial-positional association of response codes) effect refers to a mental spatialization of ordinal information in working memory. In the present study, we investigated how spatialization can be modulated by the number of items to be maintained in working memory. In Experiment 1, 139 participants performed a spatialization task with sequences of either two, three, four, or five items using a between-subject design. The results showed a significant spatialization effect for all sequence lengths except for sequences of 5 items. In Experiment 2, 96 participants performed the same spatialization task for sequences of three, four, and five items but using a within-subject design. The results confirmed the absence of a SPoARC effect for sequences of five items, and showed a greater effect for sequences of four items. In addition, we found that participants with lower spans spatialized more sequences of four items. This indicates that the effect is linked to participants' span. Overall, our findings suggest that working memory load is a moderator of the spatialization effect.