The case against specialized visual-spatial short-term memory

Morey, Candice ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7644-5239 2018. The case against specialized visual-spatial short-term memory. Psychological Bulletin 144 (8) , pp. 849-883. 10.1037/bul0000155

Preview

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

The dominant paradigm for understanding working memory, or the combination of the perceptual, attentional, and mnemonic processes needed for thinking, subdivides short-term memory (STM) according to whether memoranda are encoded in aural-verbal or visual formats. This traditional dissociation has been supported by examples of neuropsychological patients who seem to selectively lack STM for either aural-verbal, visual, or spatial memoranda, and by experimental research using dual-task methods. Though this evidence is the foundation of assumptions of modular STM systems, the case it makes for a specialized visual STM system is surprisingly weak. I identify the key evidence supporting a distinct verbal STM system—patients with apparent selective damage to verbal STM and the resilience of verbal short-term memories to general dual-task interference—and apply these benchmarks to neuropsychological and experimental investigations of visual-spatial STM. Contrary to the evidence on verbal STM, patients with apparent visual or spatial STM deficits tend to experience a wide range of additional deficits, making it difficult to conclude that a distinct short-term store was damaged. Consistently with this, a meta-analysis of dual-task visual-spatial STM research shows that robust dual-task costs are consistently observed regardless of the domain or sensory code of the secondary task. Together, this evidence suggests that positing a specialized visual STM system is not necessary.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Publisher:	American Psychological Association
ISSN:	0033-2909
Related URLs:	Publisher
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	11 April 2018
Date of Acceptance:	28 March 2018
Last Modified:	26 Nov 2024 22:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/110624

Citation Data

Cited 47 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item