Visual working memory capacity and proactive interference.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Visual working memory capacity is extremely limited and appears to be relatively immune to practice effects or the use of explicit strategies. The recent discovery that visual working memory tasks, like verbal working memory tasks, are subject to proactive interference, coupled with the fact that typical visual working memory tasks are particularly conducive to proactive interference, suggests that visual working memory capacity may be systematically under-estimated.

Methodology/principal findings

Working memory capacity was probed behaviorally in adult humans both in laboratory settings and via the Internet. Several experiments show that although the effect of proactive interference on visual working memory is significant and can last over several trials, it only

SUBMITTER: Hartshorne JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2447156 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature