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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Human Memory

Background:

  • Serial order in verbal working memory is typically coded along a left-to-right spatial axis, known as the spatial positional association response codes (SPoARC) effect.
  • This suggests the cognitive system internally generates a spatial frame to bind and maintain serial information for verbally processed sequences.
  • The flexibility of this internally generated spatial coding remains an area for investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the interplay between internal and external spatial codes in working memory.
  • To test the flexibility of the spatial positional association response codes (SPoARC) effect.
  • To determine if external spatial cues can alter the spontaneous coding of serial order.

Main Methods:

  • A verbal Sternberg probe detection task was employed.
  • Participants encoded item sequences presented centrally, with manipulated directions (left-to-right and right-to-left) and presentation rates (1-s/item and 5-s/item).

Main Results:

  • SPoARC effects were observed across all tested conditions.
  • A reversal of the SPoARC effect was found when items were presented from right-to-left.
  • This reversal occurred without any spatial cost and was not influenced by presentation rates.

Conclusions:

  • Spatial coding for serial order in verbal working memory is highly flexible.
  • External spatial presentation cues can override or reverse the typical left-to-right SPoARC effect.
  • These findings highlight the dynamic recruitment of spatial resources for memory.