The role of working memory in a double span task

This paper introduces a double span task to activate all three components o f Baddeley and Hitch's working memory model simultaneously. Subjects were p resented with sequences of words or pictures which appeared one by one at a different, randomly chosen location on a 4 x 4 grid. Subsequently they wer e asked for the serial recall of content location or both. A dual task para digm was used to investigate the effects of articulatory suppression, visuo -spatial tapping and a central executive suppression task on the three type s of recall. In addition to classical interference effects of verbal and vi suo-spatial suppression on recall of content and location respectively, a t riple dissociation between all three working memory subsystems was found.