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Updated: May 15, 2026
05:15
The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
Published on: February 19, 2018
Asymmetric binding in serial memory for verbal and spatial information.
Katherine Guérard1, Candice C Morey, Sébastien Lagacé
1École de psychologie, Université de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, E1A 3E9, Canada. katherine.guerard@umoncton.ca
Memory & Cognition
|December 21, 2012
Summary
This study reveals that verbal information influences spatial memory recall for visual stimuli, but spatial details do not impact verbal recall. This suggests an asymmetric binding process in human memory.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human Memory
Background:
- Research increasingly shows items are stored as bound representations in memory.
- Understanding how different features (e.g., verbal, spatial) bind together is a key area of investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relative importance of verbal and spatial features in serial memory for visual stimuli.
- To determine the directionality of binding between verbal and spatial information in memory.
Main Methods:
- Participants memorized the order of visually presented letter series at different screen locations.
- Two experimental paradigms were used: order reconstruction and probe serial recall.
- Independent variables included phonological similarity of letters and complexity of spatial patterns.
Main Results:
- Manipulating phonological similarity of letters significantly affected recall of their spatial locations.
- Increasing the complexity of spatial patterns did not impact recall of the letters themselves.
- These asymmetric effects were consistent across both order reconstruction and probe serial recall experiments.
Conclusions:
- Verbal-spatial binding in serial memory for visual information is asymmetric.
- Verbal features play a more dominant role in binding spatial information than vice versa.
- This asymmetry has implications for models of working memory and information integration.
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