Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science, Bielefeld University, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany.
Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology, Bielefeld University, 33619, Bielefeld, Germany.
Exp Brain Res. 2022 Dec;240(12):3237-3248. doi: 10.1007/s00221-022-06491-8. Epub 2022 Oct 25.
In the current study, we asked if less motor re-planning requires fewer resources in working memory (WM). To this end, participants executed a spatial WM task in parallel to different sequential motor tasks: (1) a randomised task with a high amount of motor re-planning and (2) an ordered task with a lower amount of motor re-planning. Recall performance in the spatial WM task was measured as the dependent variable. Hand posture was used to calculate the percentage of motor re-planning and, thus, to validate the experimental manipulation. The percentage of motor re-planning was lower in the ordered task, while spatial WM performance was higher. This indicates that WM resources depleted by the motor task scale with the amount of motor re-planning. Results further showed a significant recency effect (i.e. better recall of late items) in the spatial WM task. As previous studies found that recency effects in a verbal WM task are disrupted by a concurrent motor task, the presence of recency in the current study indicates a differential interference of a concurrent motor task on verbal vs. spatial recall, which has important implications for several current models of WM.
在本研究中，我们想知道较少的运动重新规划是否需要较少的工作记忆（WM）资源。为此，参与者在执行空间 WM 任务的同时执行了不同的顺序运动任务：（1）具有大量运动重新规划的随机任务，（2）具有较低运动重新规划的有序任务。空间 WM 任务的回忆表现是作为因变量来衡量的。手的姿势被用来计算运动重新规划的百分比，从而验证实验的操作。在有序任务中，运动重新规划的百分比较低，而空间 WM 表现较高。这表明，被运动任务消耗的 WM 资源与运动重新规划的数量成正比。结果进一步显示了空间 WM 任务中的显著近因效应（即后期项目的回忆更好）。由于之前的研究发现，言语 WM 任务中的近因效应会被同时进行的运动任务干扰，因此当前研究中的近因表明，同时进行的运动任务对言语与空间回忆的干扰存在差异，这对 WM 的几个当前模型具有重要意义。
