Smyth M M, Scholey K A
Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, U.K.
Mem Cognit. 1994 Jan;22(1):1-13. doi: 10.3758/bf03202756.
It has been suggested that maintenance in visuospatial immediate memory involves implicit motor processes that are analogous to the articulatory loop in verbal memory. An alternative account, which is explored here, is that maintenance is based on shifts of spatial attention. In four experiments, subjects recalled spatial memory span items after an interval, and in a fifth experiment, digit span was recalled after an interval. The tasks carried out during the interval included touching visual targets, repeating heard words, listening to tones from spatially separated locations, pointing to these tones, pointing to visual targets, and categorizing spatial targets as being from the left or right. Spatial span recall was impaired if subjects saw visual targets or heard tones, and this impairment was increased if either a motor response or a categorical response was made. Repeating words heard in different spatial locations did not impair recall, but reading visually presented words did interfere. For digit span only, the tasks involving a verbal response impaired recall. The results are interpreted within a framework in which active spatial attention is involved in maintaining spatial items in order in memory, and is interfered with by any task (visual, auditory, perceptual, motor) that also makes demands on spatial attention.
有人提出，视觉空间即时记忆的维持涉及到与言语记忆中的发音环路类似的内隐运动过程。本文探讨的另一种观点是，维持基于空间注意力的转移。在四个实验中，受试者在间隔一段时间后回忆空间记忆广度项目，在第五个实验中，间隔一段时间后回忆数字广度。间隔期间执行的任务包括触摸视觉目标、重复听到的单词、听来自空间上不同位置的音调、指向这些音调、指向视觉目标以及将空间目标分类为来自左侧或右侧。如果受试者看到视觉目标或听到音调，空间广度回忆就会受损，如果进行运动反应或分类反应，这种损害会加剧。在不同空间位置听到的单词重复不会损害回忆，但阅读视觉呈现的单词会产生干扰。仅对于数字广度而言，涉及言语反应的任务会损害回忆。这些结果是在一个框架内进行解释的，在这个框架中，积极的空间注意力参与到在记忆中按顺序维持空间项目，并且会受到任何也对空间注意力有要求的任务（视觉、听觉、感知、运动）的干扰。
