A common capacity limitation for response and item selection in working memory.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Computational Neuroscience

Background:

• Cognitive tasks require selecting actions and objects.
• Oberauer's (2009) working memory (WM) model proposes independent declarative and procedural components.
• Previous research suggested independent selection of memory lists and tasks within WM.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the selection of single items in declarative WM and single responses in procedural WM.
• To test the independence assumption of Oberauer's WM model regarding item and response selection.
• To examine item switch costs under varying stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) in WM updating tasks.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a Psychological Refractory Period (PRP) paradigm across three experiments.
• Implemented WM updating tasks as Task 2 within the PRP setup.
• Manipulated stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between Task 1 and Task 2 to assess processing overlap.

Main Results:

• Contrary to predictions based on locus of slack logic, item switch costs were not absent or smaller at short SOAs.
• Item switch costs persisted even when declarative and procedural WM tasks were presented with minimal temporal separation.
• Findings indicate potential interaction or shared resources between declarative and procedural WM selection processes.

Conclusions:

• The results challenge the strict independence of declarative and procedural components in WM selection.
• The findings necessitate refinement of current WM models, including computational implementations.
• Further research is needed to elucidate the precise mechanisms of interaction within working memory systems.