Abstract
This study examines whether visuospatial processing and working memory retention can function independently, without sharing a common resource, in a task requiring successive interaction between integrative processing and retention for integrated images. In Experiment 1, participants were given visuospatial and verbal processing tasks as interference tasks while working either to integrate serially presented stimuli (processing and storage interference condition) or to retain integrated images (storage-only interference condition). While the visuospatial processing task produced equal levels of interference in both conditions, the verbal processing task had no interfering effect, which suggests that integrative processing and temporary memory share a common resource. However, it is possible that the task was too difficult to produce a significant difference in performance under the two conditions. In order to examine this, the level of difficulty in the visuospatial processing task was reduced in Experiment 2. Consequently, performance in the storage-only interference condition improved, although it was lower than performance in the no-interference task control condition. The visuospatial processing task had an interference effect on temporary memory, which indicates that a single resource is involved in both integrative processing and memory storage.
