September 2019
Volume 19, Issue 10
Open Access
Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting Abstract  |   September 2019
Spatial working memory and visual working memory share common storage resources
Author Affiliations & Notes
  • Zeyu Li
    Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University
  • Zhi Li
    Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University
Journal of Vision September 2019, Vol.19, 81b. doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/19.10.81b
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      Zeyu Li, Zhi Li; Spatial working memory and visual working memory share common storage resources. Journal of Vision 2019;19(10):81b. https://doi.org/10.1167/19.10.81b.

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      © ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)

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Abstract

There is solid evidence that visual processing can be separated into two main pathways, one for object identification and recognition, and the other for processing the object’s spatial location. However, it is still on debate whether, in working memory, object identity information and spatial information are stored separately. In the present study, we conducted two experiments using the dual-memory-task paradigm to examine this issue. Previous dual-task studies on the same topic often used the change detection task as the memory test, which only measures memory capacity. To distinguish potential interference in memory capacity and in memory precision, in the present study, we developed a spatial working memory task using the mixture modeling method (Zhang & Luck, 2008), which probes both memory capacity and memory precision. This spatial working memory task was combined with two visual working memory tasks that were also based on the mixture modeling technique in a dual-task paradigm. Experiment 1 investigated the interference between remembered locations and colors. Experiment 2 investigated the interference between remembered locations and orientations. The results showed that, in both experiments, memory capacity of spatial working memory and of visual working memory were substantially reduced in the dual-task condition as compared to that in the single-task condition. In contrast, the precision of the two memories was not affected by the single-task/dual-task manipulation in Experiment 1, whereas it was impaired in the dual-task condition as compared to in the single-task condition in Experiment 2. The present findings suggest that the spatial working memory and visual working memory may not be stored independently. Instead, the two memory systems may share common storage resources.

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