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The domain-specificity of serial order working memory.
Yingxue Tian1, Margaret E Beier2, Simon Fischer-Baum2
1Department of Psychological Sciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA. yingxue.tian@rice.edu.
Memory & Cognition
|December 28, 2021
Summary
Working memory for order is not universal. This study shows separate capacities for remembering the order of verbal and nonverbal information, suggesting domain-specific working memory systems.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Working memory (WM) is crucial for processing information, with distinct capacities for item and serial order information.
- Previous research suggests separate WM capacities for verbal and nonverbal items.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether the working memory capacity for serial order is domain-general or domain-specific.
- To determine if verbal and nonverbal serial order information rely on shared or separate WM systems.
Main Methods:
- 153 participants completed sequence matching tasks using verbal (letters, words) and nonverbal (locations, arrows) stimuli.
- Item and order working memory capacities were operationalized by accuracy in detecting mismatches.
- Structural equation modeling compared domain-specific versus domain-general models of serial order WM.
Main Results:
- Models with domain-specific serial order working memory latent variables demonstrated a better fit to the data.
- Evidence suggests separate capacities for verbal and nonverbal serial order information.
- Domain-general models of serial order working memory were not supported.
Conclusions:
- The findings support a domain-specific hypothesis for serial order working memory.
- Working memory systems for ordering verbal and nonverbal information appear to be distinct.
- This research clarifies the architecture of working memory for sequential information.
Keywords:
Domain-specificityIndividual differencesSerial orderStructural equation modelingWorking memoryMore Related Videos
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