[Effects of presentation mode on visual-spatial working memory performance in children and adults]

We report two studies investigating the effects of several experimental manipulations on visuo-spatial memory performance in children and adults. In particular, we were interested in memory for the location of objects. A picture reconstruction task was used where picture-like arrangements of four to six items were briefly presented and then reconstructed. In the first experiment with 5- and 8-year-olds and adults, the degree of visual differentiation of the items as well as presentation mode (simultaneous versus serial) were varied. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was a negative effect of simultaneous presentation in children, but only if the degree of visual differentiation was low. There was no such effect in adults. In a second experiment with 6- and 8-year-olds and adults, we again varied presentation mode, but excluded the scene-like character of the arrangements. All the age groups were slightly better with serial presentation. However, reducing the available schematic knowledge led to a severe performance decrease. The results are related to the current discussion about a further fractionation of the VSSP and to different assumptions about internal representations of location information.