Spatial information with pictures and words in visual short-term memory

In a delayed matching task, the influence of spatial congruence between stu dy and test on visual short-term memory for geometric figures and words was investigated. Subjects processed series of pictures which showed three wor ds or three geometric figures arranged as rows or as triangular configurati ons. At test, the elements were presented in the identical or in the altern ative configuration as at study. In the non-matching case, one of the studi ed elements was exchanged. The delay was 5 s. Subjects judged whether the e lements were the same as during study, independent of their configuration. In Exp. I, pictures of figures and words were mixed within one list. For bo th modalities, the response times were longer if the configuration at test was incongruent to the one at study. This contradicts the results of Santa, who observed effects of spatial congruency for figures, but not for words. In Exp. 2 we therefore presented the same material as in Exp. 1, but now t he lists were modality-pure, as in the experiment of Santa - i.e., words an d figures were shown in different lists. This time, spatial incongruency im paired recognition of the figures, but not recognition of the words. These results show that in a non-verbal context, isolated visually presented word s are spatially encoded as nonverbal Stimuli (figures) are. However, the wo rd stimuli are encoded differently if the task is a pure verbal one. In the latter case spatial information is discarded.