Maintenance of visuospatial information in working memory
Maintenance of visuospatial information in working memory
The working memory model of Baddeley and Hitch (1974) at present comprises a central executive and two sub-systems: the articulatory or phonological loop dedicated to the storage and processing of verbal information, and the visuospatial sketchpad which serves the same function for visuospatial information. It has been well established that the use of visual imagery is impaired by concurrent performance of non-visual manual tracking tasks, suggesting that the two processes of imagery and tracking compete for a common resource pool. Neil Morris (1987) demonstrated that a tracking task interfered with the encoding but not the maintenance of visuospatial information presented in the form of matrix patterns. The aim of this thesis was to explore this question further, using a different tracking task from that employed by Morris. Six experiments are presented which investigate the locus of the interference produced by a tracking task and the stimulus characteristics that give rise to short-term rehearsal processes that are sensitive to interference from tracking. It was established that a tracking task competes with pattern processing for modality specific resources during both presentation and maintenance of matrix patterns, whether the stimulus elements are presented sequentially or simultaneously. The scope of the thesis is broadened to observe the effect on rehearsal processes of stimulus duration, pattern complexity and pattern organisation. A clear picture of the effect of the individual stimulus characteristics does not emerge. However, the pattern of interaction of the variables pattern organisation, stimulus duration and type of suppression is interpreted as supporting the idea of two kinds of visuospatial storage process. The implications of this for a model of the sketchpad incorporating a passive store with active rehearsal processes (Logie 1989) are discussed.
University of Southampton
1991
Barton, Alison
(1991)
Maintenance of visuospatial information in working memory.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
The working memory model of Baddeley and Hitch (1974) at present comprises a central executive and two sub-systems: the articulatory or phonological loop dedicated to the storage and processing of verbal information, and the visuospatial sketchpad which serves the same function for visuospatial information. It has been well established that the use of visual imagery is impaired by concurrent performance of non-visual manual tracking tasks, suggesting that the two processes of imagery and tracking compete for a common resource pool. Neil Morris (1987) demonstrated that a tracking task interfered with the encoding but not the maintenance of visuospatial information presented in the form of matrix patterns. The aim of this thesis was to explore this question further, using a different tracking task from that employed by Morris. Six experiments are presented which investigate the locus of the interference produced by a tracking task and the stimulus characteristics that give rise to short-term rehearsal processes that are sensitive to interference from tracking. It was established that a tracking task competes with pattern processing for modality specific resources during both presentation and maintenance of matrix patterns, whether the stimulus elements are presented sequentially or simultaneously. The scope of the thesis is broadened to observe the effect on rehearsal processes of stimulus duration, pattern complexity and pattern organisation. A clear picture of the effect of the individual stimulus characteristics does not emerge. However, the pattern of interaction of the variables pattern organisation, stimulus duration and type of suppression is interpreted as supporting the idea of two kinds of visuospatial storage process. The implications of this for a model of the sketchpad incorporating a passive store with active rehearsal processes (Logie 1989) are discussed.
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Published date: 1991
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Local EPrints ID: 460659
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/460659
PURE UUID: 2f52b631-209d-445e-98c6-515162c9ddfa
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 18:26
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 18:26
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Author:
Alison Barton
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