Interference with Rehearsal in Spatial Working Memory in the Absence of Eye Movements

We have previously argued that rehearsal in spatial working memory is interfered with by spatial attention shifts rather than simply by movements to locations in space (Smyth & Scholey, 1994). It is possible, however, that the stimuli intended to induce attention shifts in our experiments also induced eye movements and interfered either with an overt eye movement rehearsal strategy or with a covert one. In the first experiment reported here, subjects fixated while they maintained a sequence of spatial items in memory before recalling them in order. Fixation did not affect recall, but auditory spatial stimuli presented during the interval did decrease performance, and it was further decreased if the stimuli were categorized as coming from the right or the left. A second experiment investigated the effects of auditory spatial stimuli to which no response was ever required and found that these did not interfere with performance, indicating that it is the spatial salience of targets that leads to interference. This interference from spatial input in the absence of any overt movement of the eyes or limbs is interpreted in terms of shifts of spatial attention or spatial monitoring, which Morris (1989) has suggested affects spatial encoding and which our findings suggest also affects reactivation in rehearsal.

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Interference between smooth pursuit and color working memory

Journal of Eye Movement Research ◽

10.16910/jemr.10.3.6 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Shulin Yue ◽

Zhenlan Jin ◽

Chenggui Fan ◽

Qian Zhang ◽

Ling Li

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Eye Movements ◽

Visual Field ◽

Spatial Attention ◽

Smooth Pursuit ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽

Match To Sample ◽

Pursuit Eye Movements ◽

The Relationship

Spatial working memory (WM) and spatial attention are closely related, but the relationship between non-spatial WM and spatial attention still remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the interaction between color WM and smooth pursuit eye movements. A modified delayed-match-to-sample paradigm (DMS) was applied with 2 or 4 items presented in each visual field. Subjects memorized the colors of items in the cued visual field and smoothly moved eyes towards or away from memorized items during retention interval despite that the colored items were no longer visible. The WM performance decreased with higher load in general. More importantly, the WM performance was better when subjects pursued towards rather than away from the cued visual field. Meanwhile, the pursuit gain decreased with higher load and demonstrated a higher result when pursuing away from the cued visual field. These results indicated that spatial attention, guiding attention to the memorized items, benefits color WM. Therefore, we propose that a competition for attention resources exists between color WM and smooth pursuit eye movements.

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The role of prefrontal cortex in working memory: examining the contents of consciousness

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.1998.0334 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 353 (1377) ◽

pp. 1819-1828 ◽

Cited By ~ 159

Author(s):

◽

S. M. Courtney ◽

L. Petit ◽

J. V. Haxby ◽

L. G. Ungerleider

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Functional Organization ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Domain Specificity ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Present Evidence ◽

The Right

Working memory enables us to hold in our ‘mind's eye’ the contents of our conscious awareness, even in the absence of sensory input, by maintaining an active representation of information for a brief period of time. In this review we consider the functional organization of the prefrontal cortex and its role in this cognitive process. First, we present evidence from brain–imaging studies that prefrontal cortex shows sustained activity during the delay period of visual working memory tasks, indicating that this cortex maintains on–line representations of stimuli after they are removed from view. We then present evidence for domain specificity within frontal cortex based on the type of information, with object working memory mediated by more ventral frontal regions and spatial working memory mediated by more dorsal frontal regions. We also propose that a second dimension for domain specificity within prefrontal cortex might exist for object working memory on the basis of the type of representation, with analytic representations maintained preferentially in the left hemisphere and image–based representations maintained preferentially in the right hemisphere. Furthermore, we discuss the possibility that there are prefrontal areas brought into play during the monitoring and manipulation of information in working memory in addition to those engaged during the maintenance of this information. Finally, we consider the relationship of prefrontal areas important for working memory, both to posterior visual processing areas and to prefrontal areas associated with long–term memory.

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Remembering a Location Makes the Eyes Curve Away

Psychological Science ◽

10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00803.x ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 196-199 ◽

Cited By ~ 72

Author(s):

Jan Theeuwes ◽

Christian N.L. Olivers ◽

Christopher L. Chizk

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Eye Movement ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Direct Evidence ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Saccadic Eye Movements ◽

Limited Information ◽

On Line ◽

Movement System ◽

Everyday Life Activities

Working memory is a system that keeps limited information on-line for immediate access by cognitive processes. This type of active maintenance is important for everyday life activities. The present study shows that maintaining a location in spatial working memory affects the trajectories of saccadic eye movements toward visual targets, as the eyes deviate away from the remembered location. This finding provides direct evidence for a strong overlap between spatial working memory and the eye movement system. We argue that curvature is the result of the need to inhibit memory-based eye movement activity in the superior colliculus, in order to allow an accurate saccade to the visual target. Whereas previous research has shown that the eyes may deviate away from visually presented stimuli that need to be ignored, we show that the eyes also curve away from remembered stimuli.

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Saccadic Eye Movements and Dual-Task Interference

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A ◽

10.1080/14640749308401067 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

pp. 51-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 73

Author(s):

Harold Pashler ◽

Mark Carrier ◽

James Hoffman

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Eye Movement ◽

Dual Task ◽

Saccadic Eye Movements ◽

Choice Response ◽

Task Interference ◽

The Right ◽

Colour Patch ◽

Dual Task Interference ◽

Close Temporal Proximity

Four dual-task experiments required a speeded manual choice response to a tone in a close temporal proximity to a saccadic eye movement task. In Experiment 1, subjects made a saccade towards a single transient; in Experiment 2, a red and a green colour patch were presented to left and right, and the saccade was to which ever patch was the pre-specified target colour. There was some slowing of the eye movement, but neither task combination showed typical dual-task interference (the “psychological refractory effect”). However, more interference was observed when the direction of the saccade depended on whether a central colour patch was red or green, or when the saccade was directed towards the numerically higher of two large digits presented to the left and the right. Experiment 5 examined a vocal second task, for comparison. The findings might reflect the fact that eye movements can be directed by two separate brain systems–-the superior colliculus and the frontal eye fields; commands from the latter but not the former may be delayed by simultaneous unrelated sensorimotor tasks.

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Testing Conclusions From Functional Imaging of Working Memory with Data From Acute Stroke

Behavioural Neurology ◽

10.1155/2007/396946 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 37-43 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Lisa E. Philipose ◽

Hannah Alphs ◽

Vivek Prabhakaran ◽

Argye E. Hillis

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Acute Stroke ◽

Functional Imaging ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Stroke Patients ◽

Imaging Results ◽

Cortical Stroke ◽

The Right

Functional imaging studies indicate that the left hemisphere mediates verbal working memory, while the right hemisphere mediates both verbal and spatial working memory. We evaluated acute stroke patients with working memory tests and imaging to identify whether unilateral dysfunction causes deficits in spatial and/or verbal working memory deficits. While left cortical stroke patients had verbal working memory impairments (p< 0.003), right cortical stroke patients had both verbal (p< 0.007) and spatial working memory (p< 0.03) impairments, confirming functional imaging results. Patients with transient ischemic stroke and patients with non-cortical stroke did not have significant deficits in working memory in either modality.

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Spatial Attention Shifts in Addition and Subtraction Arithmetic: Evidence of Eye Movement

Perception ◽

10.1177/0301006619865156 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 48 (9) ◽

pp. 835-849 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rongjuan Zhu ◽

Xuqun You ◽

Shuoqiu Gan ◽

Jinwei Wang

Keyword(s):

Eye Movement ◽

Spatial Attention ◽

Spatial Association ◽

Eye Tracker ◽

Addition And Subtraction ◽

Attention Shifts

Recently, it has been proposed that solving addition and subtraction problems can evoke horizontal shifts of spatial attention. However, prior to this study, it remained unclear whether orienting shifts of spatial attention relied on actual arithmetic processes (i.e., the activated magnitude) or the semantic spatial association of the operator. In this study, spatial–arithmetic associations were explored through three experiments using an eye tracker, which attempted to investigate the mechanism of those associations. Experiment 1 replicated spatial–arithmetic associations in addition and subtraction problems. Experiments 2 and 3 selected zero as the operand to investigate whether these arithmetic problems could induce shifts of spatial attention. Experiment 2 indicated that addition and subtraction problems (zero as the second operand, i.e., 2 + 0) do not induce shifts of spatial attention. Experiment 3 showed that addition and subtraction arithmetic (zero as the first operand, i.e., 0 + 2) do facilitate rightward and leftward eye movement, respectively. This indicates that the operator alone does not induce horizontal eye movement. However, our findings support the idea that solving addition and subtraction problems is associated with horizontal shifts of spatial attention.

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Eye Movements of Spatial Working Memory Encoding in Children with and without Autism: Chunking Processing and Reference Preference

Autism Research ◽

10.1002/aur.2398 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Songze Li ◽

Jinsheng Hu ◽

Ruosong Chang ◽

Qi Li ◽

Peng Wan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Eye Movements ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Memory Encoding

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Visual spatial attention and spatial working memory do not draw on shared capacity-limited core processes

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021819897882 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 73 (5) ◽

pp. 799-818 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Christina J Howard ◽

Rebekah Pole ◽

Paulina Montgomery ◽

Amanda Woodward ◽

Duncan Guest ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Spatial Attention ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Underlying Mechanism ◽

Spatial Task ◽

Monitoring Task ◽

Visual Spatial ◽

Location Binding ◽

Load Types ◽

Position Monitoring

The extent to which similar capacity limits in visual attention and visual working memory indicate a common shared underlying mechanism is currently still debated. In the spatial domain, the multiple object tracking (MOT) task has been used to assess the relationship between spatial attention and spatial working memory though existing results have been inconclusive. In three dual task experiments, we examined the extent of interference between attention to spatial positions and memory for spatial positions. When the position monitoring task required keeping track of target identities through colour-location binding, we found a moderate detrimental effect of position monitoring on spatial working memory and an ambiguous interaction effect. However, when this task requirement was removed, load increases in neither task were detrimental to the other. The only very moderate interference effect that remained resided in an interaction between load types but was not consistent with shared capacity between tasks—rather it was consistent with content-related crosstalk between spatial representations. Contrary to propositions that spatial attention and spatial working memory may draw on a common shared set of core processes, these findings indicate that for a purely spatial task, perceptual attention and working memory appear to recruit separate core capacity-limited processes.

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Representational Pseudoneglect in an Auditory-Driven Spatial Working Memory Task

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1080/17470218.2011.575948 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 64 (11) ◽

pp. 2168-2180 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Joanna L. Brooks ◽

Robert H. Logie ◽

Robert McIntosh ◽

Sergio Della Sala

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Mental Representation ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Mental Representations ◽

Memory Task ◽

Visuospatial Working Memory ◽

Verbal Descriptions ◽

The Matrix ◽

The Right ◽

Healthy Participants

Two experiments explored lateralized biases in mental representations of matrix patterns formed from aural verbal descriptions. Healthy participants listened, either monaurally or binaurally, to verbal descriptions of 6 by 3 matrix patterns and were asked to form a mental representation of each pattern. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to judge which half of the matrix, left or right, contained more filled cells and to rate the certainty of their judgement. Participants tended to judge that the left side was fuller than the right and showed significantly greater certainty when judging patterns that were fuller on the left. This tendency was particularly strong for left-ear presentation. In Experiment 2, participants conducted the same task as that in Experiment 1 but were also asked to recall the pattern for the side judged as fuller. Participants were again more certain in judging patterns that were fuller on the left—particularly for left-ear presentation—but were no more accurate in remembering the details from the left. These results suggest that the left side of the mental representation was represented more saliently but it was not remembered more accurately. We refer to this lateralized bias as “representational pseudoneglect”. Results are discussed in terms of theories of visuospatial working memory.

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