Author: Ellen Clarke
Publisher:
Published: 2012
Total Pages: 122
ISBN-13:
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Working memory (WM) and visuospatial attention (VA) are both cognitive constructs that are related to the processing of relevant information. While these processes are capable of functioning independently, there is significant evidence suggesting a relationship between the two. However, the exact nature of this relationship is not well understood, and no testable hypotheses have been advanced. In this dissertation, three experiments were conducted in an effort to uncover the nature of the relationship between WM and VA. It was hypothesized that when WM and VA are simultaneously deployed, a new process is formed (an integrated view). Based on this hypothesis, it was predicted that this new process would operate using the shared resources of WM and VA. This hypothesis was compared against the parallel view, which stated that WM and VA are separate processes that simply interact. The parallel view would not predict processing resources to be shared between WM and VA. The three experiments were designed to provide converging evidence to support one of these views by targeting different aspects of WM and VA and using various measurement techniques. Results showed support for the integrated view. Specifically, it was demonstrated that manipulations in either WM or VA resulted in graded changes in the other process. This suggests a sharing of resources between the two processes, as would be expected if WM and VA had integrated to form a new process. The parallel view would predict that manipulations in either WM or VA would only have resulted in broad changes in the other process, indicative of a lack of resource sharing. These findings were demonstrated in all three experiments. First, it was shown that manipulating WM load resulted in differences in the effect of the timing of attentional deployment on behavioral performance. Second, manipulations in WM load were associated with different attentional distributions. Finally, the constriction of attention resulted in different relationships between working memory capacity (WMC) and the ability to filter out distracting information. This range of evidence provides strong empirical support for the hypothesis that WM and VA form a new process when simultaneously deployed. Current models of WM and VA do not make predictions regarding the nature of the relationship between the two processes. Thus, should these findings be replicated, models of WM and VA will need to be modified accordingly
