Maintaining cross-domain objects and features in working memory : implications for storage in models of working memory

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on February 26, 2008)Vita.Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2007.A great deal of evidence, both from behavioral studies of cross-domain interference and from neuroimaging, suggests the need for a domain-general store in models of working memory. Baddeley included such a store in an updated version of the influential multiple component model (2000), but it is still unknown how this new component interacts with better-known working memory components. Using cross-domain objects (letters in spatial locations) for memoranda, the following experiments aimed to learn whether domain-specific and domain-general stores can be used concurrently, and in doing so to better understand how components of a working memory system interact. A critical finding shows that concurrent articulatory suppression impairs memory for integrated cross-domain objects that include spatial location features, but does not affect spatial locations when they are represented as isolated features. This evidence is interpreted as support for a domain-general store capable of accommodating different representations for spatial materials and capable of interfacing with verbal rehearsal mechanisms, depending on memory demands.Includes bibliographical reference