REVEALING THE BASIC PROPERTIES OF THE VISUOSPATIAL SKETCHPAD - THE USE OF COMPLETE SPATIAL ARRAYS

In working memory theory, there is currently increasing interest in th e notion of a visuospatial slave system analogous to the articulatory loop. Evidence for such a system has been obtained using dual task met hods from a variety of tasks, many of which would seem to confound cen tral with specific resource demands. The experiments reported here att empted to avoid this confusion by exploring the effect of performing v erbal and spatial secondary tasks during a short period of maintenance following the visual presentation of complete simple spatial arrays. The effects of varying stimulus duration, length of the maintenance pe riod and pattern complexity were also investigated. Results showed sma ll but persistent error increases due to interference from the spatial secondary task. It is proposed that there is an advantage for this ap proach in revealing the basic characteristics of a visuospatial slave system in working memory.