Impact of concurrent temporal but not spatial processing on working memory for serial order.

[en] Serial order is an essential but still poorly understood component of verbal working memory (WM). This study examined the role of spatial vs. temporal codes for the representation of serial order information by presenting spatial or temporal secondary tasks during the completion of a verbal WM task. The secondary tasks were dot detection tasks designed to impact spatial processing (the dots appeared in random vs. left-to-right spatial order) or temporal processing (the dots appeared in regular vs. irregular temporal order). In two experiments, we observed an exclusive, interfering impact of the temporal secondary task on serial order WM while evidence for the null was observed for the impact of the spatial secondary task. These data provide support for an intervention of temporal processes in the encoding of serial order information in WM. Furthermore, the effect of temporal interference was not limited to WM for serial order information, but also disrupted WM for item information. These findings highlight the role of temporal processes in encoding both item and serial order information in WM, possibly by allowing binding of the two types of information.

Research Center/Unit :

PsyNCog - Psychologie et Neuroscience Cognitives - ULiège

Disciplines :

Theoretical & cognitive psychology

Author, co-author :

Attout, Lucie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Mémoire et langage

Remouchamps, Robin ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Psychologie et Neuroscience Cognitives (PsyNCog)

Majerus, Steve ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Psychologie et Neuroscience Cognitives (PsyNCog) ; Fund for Scientific Research FNRS, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

Language :

English

Title :

Impact of concurrent temporal but not spatial processing on working memory for serial order.

Publication date :

18 May 2025

Journal title :

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

ISSN :

1747-0218

eISSN :

1747-0226

Publisher :

SAGE, England

Pages :

17470218251346745

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17470218251346745

Funders :

F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique

Funding number :

CR-FC 88264; EOS 30446199

Data Set :

https://osf.io/3xz54

Available on ORBi :

since 22 May 2025

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