Spatial working memory maintenance: does attention play a role? A visual search study.
Recent studies have proposed that a common mechanism may underlie spatial attention and spatial working memory. One proposal is that spatial working memory is maintained by attention-based rehearsal [Awh, E., Jonides, J., & Reuter-Lorenz, P. A. (1998). Rehearsal in spatial working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24(3), 780-790], and so a spatial attention shift during the retention interval of a spatial location should impair its memory performance. In the present study, participants engaged in single-item, parallel or serial search tasks while remembering a spatial location. Although memory tended to bias all searches, the need for an attentional shift during the retention interval impaired memory performance only in single-item search, but not in other searches. These findings suggest that previous evidence for the attention-based rehearsal account does not generalize to visual search. Results are discussed with regard to the relationship between spatial attention and spatial working memory.
Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong. clouis@graduate.hku.hk
Louis K H
LK
Chan
William G
WG
Hayward
Jan
J
Theeuwes
D001288:Attention; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011930:Reaction Time; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D013028:Space Perception