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Abstract:
Two experiments examined the effects of eye movements and
shifts of attention on working memory. In Experiment 1, subjects
performed a primary spatial working memory task (requiring
maintenance of spatial locations sequentially presented in the
cells of a grid) along with a secondary task (requiring fixation,
an attention shift, or an eye movement). The results indicated that
both eye movements and attention shifts executed in the absence of
eye movements interfered with spatial working memory. In order to
examine the domain specificity of the attention interference
effect, subjects in Experiment 2 separately performed primary
spatial and verbal working memory tasks (requiring the maintenance
of sequentially presented locations and letters, respectively)
along with a secondary task (requiring fixation or a shift of
attention). The results of Experiment 2 indicated that shifts of
attention interfered with spatial but not verbal working memory. In
a previous study, we showed that limb movements (even when not
visually guided) also interfere with spatial working memory. The
most parsimonious interpretation of our previous and present
findings is that attention shifts, which we have shown decrease the
number of locations that can be remembered, also underlie the
interference produced by eye and limb movements. Our findings
regarding both the cause and the selectivity of interference with
working memory set important empirical constraints on the possible
mechanisms underlying the maintenance of location
information.
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