title: Processing of representations in declarative and procedural working memory.
abstract: The article investigates the relation between declarative and procedural working memory (WM; Oberauer, 2009). Two experiments test the assumption that representations in the two subsystems are selected for processing in analogous ways. Participants carried out a series of decisions on memorized lists of digits. For each decision, they had to select declarative and procedural representations. Regarding declarative representations, participants selected a memory set and a digit within this set as the input to each decision. With respect to the procedural representations, they selected a task set to be applied to the selected digit and a response within that task set. We independently manipulated the number of lists and the number of tasks to be switched among (one, two, or three; Experiment 1) and preparation time for a list switch (Experiment 2). For three effects commonly observed in task-switch studies, analogues in declarative WM were found: list-switch costs, mixing costs, and residual switch costs. List- and task-switch costs were underadditive, suggesting that declarative and procedural representations are selected separately and in parallel. The findings support the hypothesis of two analogous WM subsystems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology Unit, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland. a.souza@psychologie.uzh.ch
authors.forename: Alessandra da Silva
authors.initials: Ada S
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oberauer
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gade
authors.forename: Michel D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Druey
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time