WHAT WAS WHERE - MEMORY FOR OBJECT LOCATIONS

Three experiments are reported on short-term memory for object locatio n. Stimulus displays containing different numbers and types of objects were presented for 30 seconds, after which subjects were required to relocate the various objects within the display, merely to reconstruct positions, or to assign objects correctly to an equal number of prema rked positions. In all experiments half the trials were performed with concurrent articulatory suppression. The results support the hypothes is that two processes can be distinguished: one that underlies the con struction of a positional map and one that assigns objects to position s. These processes are differentially affected by object numbers and a rticulatory suppression. This hypothesis is discussed in terms of Badd eley's (1986) working memory model and Kosslyn's (1987) distinction be tween ''categorical'' and ''coordinate'' spacial relations.