Abstract
The ability to retain and process an object’s identity and spatial location is essential for many daily tasks, often referred to as visual–spatial working memory. Research investigating visual–spatial processing has concentrated on three aspects or mechanisms thought to sub-serve this process; perceptual processes, anatomical correlates and working memory functions. An approach integrating all three areas has largely been neglected. Hence, this review sought to (1) outline some of the advances made to the understanding by these three concepts or models of visual–spatial processing, (2) establish the relationship between these processes, and discuss the challenges faced by researchers attempting to dissociate this functions from other visual–spatial processes as well as other working memory functions. It is suggested that a more comprehensive and integrative understanding of visual–spatial working memory has implications for research seeking to investigate visual–spatial memory, and to relate visual–spatial memory to other cognitive functions, such as executive function and attention.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alvarez, G. A., & Cavanagh, P. (2004). The capacity of visual short-term memory is set both by visual information load and by number of objects. Psychological Science, 15(2), 106–111. doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01502006.x.
Andrewes, D. G. (2001). Neuropsychology: From theory to practice. New York: Psychology Press.
Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In K. W. Spence, & J. T. Spence (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (vol. 2, (pp. 89–195)). New York: Academic.
Awh, E., Jonides, J., & Reuter-Lorenz, P. A. (1998). Rehearsal in spatial working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24, 780–790. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.24.3.780.
Baddeley, A. D. (1986). Working memory. Oxford: Clarendon.
Baddeley, A. D. (1992). Working memory. Science, 255, 556–559. doi:10.1126/science.1736359.
Baddeley, A. D. (1996a). Exploring the central executive. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49A(1), 5–28. doi:10.1080/027249896392784.
Baddeley, A. D. (1996b). The fractionation of working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 93, 13468–13472. doi:10.1073/pnas.93.24.13468.
Baddeley, A. D. (1997). Human memory: Theory and practice (Revised ed.). East Sussex: Psychology Press.
Baddeley, A. D. (1998a). The central executive: a concept and some misconceptions. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4, 523–526. doi:10.1017/S135561779800513X.
Baddeley, A. D. (1998b). Recent developments in working memory. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 8, 234–238. doi:10.1016/S0959-4388(98)80145-1.
Baddeley, A. D. (1999). Essentials of human memory. East Sussex: Psychology Press.
Baddeley, A. D. (2000). The episodic buffer: a new component for working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 417–423. doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01538-2.
Baddeley, A. D. (2001). The magic number and the episodic buffer. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 117–118. doi:10.1017/S0140525X01253928.
Baddeley, A. D. (2003). Double dissociations: not magic, but still useful. Cortex, 39, 129–131. doi:10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70082-0.
Baddeley, A. D., Emslie, H., Kolodny, J., & Duncan, J. (1998). Random generation and the executive control of working memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 51A(4), 819–852. doi:10.1080/027249898391413.
Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. J. (1974). Working memory. In G. Bower (Ed.), Recent advances in learning and motivation (vol. 8, (pp. 47–89)). New York: Academic.
Baddeley, A. D., Lewis, V., & Vallar, G. (1984). Exploring the articulatory loop. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 36A, 233–252.
Baizer, J. S., Ungerleider, L. G., & Desimone, R. (1991). Organization of visual inputs to the inferior temporal and posterior parietal cortex in macaques. Journal of Neuroscience, 11, 168–190.
Bak, T. H., Caine, D., Hearn, V. C., & Hodges, J. R. (2006). Visuospatial functions in atypical parkinsonian syndromes. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 77, 454–456. doi:10.1136/jnnp.2005.068239.
Bak, T. H., Crawford, L. M., Hearn, V. C., Mathuranath, P. S., & Hodges, J. R. (2005). Subcortical dementia revisited: similarities and differences in cognitive function between progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal degeneration (CBD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA). Neurocase, 11(4), 268–273. doi:10.1080/13554790590962997.
Barrett, A. M., Crucian, G. P., Schwartz, R., Nallamshetty, H., & Heilman, K. M. (2001). Seeing trees but not the forest: limited perception of large configurations in PD. Neurology, 56(6), 724–729.
Beck, P. D., & Kaas, J. H. (1999). Cortical connections of the dorsomedial visual area in old world macaque monkeys. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 406, 487–502. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1096-9861(19990419)406:4<487::AID-CNE6>3.0.CO;2-B.
Bradshaw, J. M., Saling, M., Anderson, V., Hopwood, M., & Brodtmann, A. (2006). Higher cortical deficits influence attentional processing in dementia with Lewy bodies, relative to patients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type and controls. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 77, 1129–1135. doi:10.1136/jnnp.2006.090183.
Brandimonte, M. A., Hitch, G. J., & Bishop, D. V. M. (1992). Influence of short-term memory codes on visual processing: evidence from image transformation tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18, 157–165. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.18.1.157.
Bronnick, K., Emre, M., Lane, R., Tekin, S., & Aarsland, D. (2007). Profile of cognitive impairment in dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease compared with Alzheimer’s disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 78, 1064–1068. doi:10.1136/jnnp.2006.108076.
Butter, C. M., Trobe, J. D., Foster, N. L., & Berent, S. (1996). Visual-spatial deficits explain visual symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease. American Journal of Ophthalmology, 122(1), 97–105.
Calderon, J., Perry, R. J., Erzinclioglu, S. W., Berrios, G. E., Dening, T. R., & Hodges, J. R. (2001). Perception, attention, and working memory are disproportionately impaired in dementia with Lewy bodies compared with Alzheimer’s disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 70, 157–164. doi:10.1136/jnnp.70.2.157.
Carpenter, P. A., & Eisenberg, P. (1978). Mental rotation and the frame of reference in blind and sighted individuals. Perception and Psychophysics, 23, 117–124.
Chalupa, L. M., & Werner, J. S. (Eds.). (2004a). The visual neurosciences (Vol. 1). Cambridge: MIT.
Chalupa, L. M., & Werner, J. S. (Eds.). (2004b). The Visual Neurosciences (Vol. 2). Cambridge: MIT.
Cocchini, G., Logie, R. H., Della Sala, S., MacPherson, S. E., & Baddeley, A. D. (2002). Concurrent performance of two memory tasks: evidence for domain-specific working memory systems. Memory & Cognition, 30, 1086–1095.
Collerton, D., Burn, D., McKeith, I., & O’Brien, J. (2003). Systematic review and meta-analysis show that dementia with Lewy bodies is a visual-perceptual and attentional-executive dementia. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 16, 229–237. doi:10.1159/000072807.
Cornoldi, C., & Vecchi, T. (2003). Visual-spatial working memory and individual differences. East Sussex: Psychology Press.
Coslett, H. B., & Saffran, E. (1991). Simultanagnosia: to see but not to see. Brain, 114, 1523–1545. doi:10.1093/brain/114.4.1523.
Courtney, S. M., Petit, L., Maisog, J. M., Ungerleider, L. G., & Haxby, J. V. (1998). An area specialized for spatial working memory in human frontal cortex. Science, 279, 1347–1351. doi:10.1126/science.279.5355.1347.
Courtney, S. M., Ungerleider, L. G., Keil, K., & Haxby, J. V. (1996). Object and spatial visual working memory activate separate neural systems in human cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 6, 39–49. doi:10.1093/cercor/6.1.39.
Cowan, N. (1994). Mechanisms of verbal short-term memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 6, 185–189. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770705.
Cowan, N. (1995). Attention and memory: An integrated framework. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cowan, N. (1999). An embedded-processes model of working memory. In A. Miyake, & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 62–101). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cowan, N. (2001). The magical number four in short-term memory: a reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 87–114. doi:10.1017/S0140525X01003922.
Cowan, N. (2005). Working memory capacity. New York: Psychology Press.
D’Esposito, M., Postle, B. R., Ballard, D., & Lease, J. (1999). Maintenance versus manipulation of information held in working memory: an event-related fMRI study. Brain and Cognition, 41, 66–86. doi:10.1006/brcg.1999.1096.
D’Esposito, M., Zarahn, E., & Aguirre, G. K. (1999). Event-related functional MRI: Implications for cognitive psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 125(1), 155–164. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.125.1.155.
Davidsdottir, S., Cronin-Golomb, A., & Lee, A. (2005). Visual and spatial symptoms in Parkinson's disease. Vision Research, 45, 1285–1296. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2004.11.006.
Davis, G. (2000). There is no four-object limit on attention. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 119–120. doi:10.1017/S0140525X01273920.
Davis, G., & Holmes, A. (2005). The capacity of visual short-term memory is not a fixed number of objects. Memory & Cognition, 33(2), 185–195.
Delvenne, J. (2005). The capacity of visual short-term memory within and between hemifields. Cognition, 96, B79–B88. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2004.12.007.
Dent, K., & Smyth, M. M. (2006). Capacity limitations and representational shifts in spatial short-term memory. Visual Cognition, 13(5), 529–572. doi:10.1080/13506280444000760.
Desimone, R., & Duncan, J. (1995). Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention. Annual Reviews Neuroscience, 18, 193–222. doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.18.030195.001205.
Downing, P., Liu, J., & Kanwisher, N. (2001). Testing cognitive models of visual attention with fMRI and MEG. Neuropsychologia, 39, 1329–1342. doi:10.1016/S0028-3932(01)00121-X.
Duncan, J. (1984). Selective attention and the organization of visual information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113(4), 501–517. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.113.4.501.
Engle, R. W., & Oransky, N. (1999). Multi-store versus dynamic models of temporary storage memory. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), The nature of cognition (pp. 515–555). Cambridge: MIT.
Ericsson, K. A., & Kintsch, W. (1995). Long-term working memory. Psychological Review, 102(2), 211–245. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.102.2.211.
Felleman, D. J., & Van Essen, D. C. (1991). Distributed hierarchical processing in the primate cerebral cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 1, 1–47. doi:10.1093/cercor/1.1.1-a.
Finke, K., Bublak, P., & Zihl, J. (2006). Visual spatial and visual pattern working memory: neuropsychological evidence for a differential role of left and right dorsal visual brain. Neuropsychologia, 33, 649–661. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.06.015.
Frick, R. W. (1990). The visual suffix effect in tests of the visual short-term store. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 28, 101–104.
Funahashi, S., Bruce, C. J., & Goldman-Rakic, P. S. (1991). Neuronal activity related to saccadic eye movements in the monkey’s dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology, 65(6), 1464–1483.
Fuster, J. M. (1990). Behavioral electrophysiology of the prefrontal cortex of the primate. Progress in Brain Research, 85, 313–323. doi:10.1016/S0079-6123(08)62687-4.
Gainotti, G., Parlato, V., Monteleone, D., & Carlomagno, S. (1992). Neuropsychological markers of dementia on visual-spatial tasks: a comparison between Alzheimer’s type and vascular forms of dementia. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 14(2), 239–252. doi:10.1080/01688639208402826.
Gathercole, S. E., & Baddeley, A. D. (1993). Working memory and language. Hove: Erlbaum.
Gazzaniga, M. S. (Ed.). (2004). The cognitive neurosciences (3rd ed.). Cambridge: MIT.
Gazzaniga, M. S., Ivry, R. B., & Mangun, G. R. (2002). Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Gegenfurtner, K. R., Kiper, D. C., & Levitt, J. B. (1997). Functional properties of neurons in macaque area V3. Journal of Neurophysiology, 77, 1906–1923.
Goldman-Rakic, P. S. (1990). Cellular and circuit basis of working memory in prefrontal cortex of nonhuman primates. Progress in Brain Research, 85, 325–335. doi:10.1016/S0079-6123(08)62688-6.
Haxby, J. V., Grady, C. L., Horwitz, B., Ungerleider, L. G., Mishkin, M., Carson, R. E., et al. (1991). Dissociation of object and spatial visual processing pathways in human extrastriate cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., 88, 1621–1625. doi:10.1073/pnas.88.5.1621.
Haxby, J. V., Petit, L., Ungerleider, L. G., & Courtney, S. M. (2000). Distinguishing the functional roles of multiple regions in distributed neural systems for visual working memory. NeuroImage, 11, 145–156. doi:10.1006/nimg.1999.0527.
Healy, A. F., & McNamara, D. S. (1996). Verbal learning and memory: does the modal model still work? Annual Review of Psychology, 47, 143–172. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.47.1.143.
Hecker, R., & Mapperson, B. (1997). Dissociation of visual and spatial processing in working memory. Neuropsychologia, 35, 599–603. doi:10.1016/S0028-3932(96)00106-6.
Hegarty, M., Shah, P., & Miyake, A. (2000). Constraints on using the dual-task methodology to specify the degree of central executive involvement in cognitive tasks. Memory & Cognition, 28, 376–385.
James, W. (1895). The principles of psychology. New York: Holt.
Jiang, Y., Olson, I. R., & Chun, M. M. (2000). Organization of visual short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26, 683–702. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.26.3.683.
Jones, D. M., Macken, W. J., & Nicholls, A. P. (2004). The phonological store of working memory: is it phonological and is it a store? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30, 656–674. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.30.3.656.
Kane, M. J., Hambrick, D. Z., Tuholski, S. W., Wilhelm, O., Payne, T. W., & Engle, R. W. (2004). The generality of working memory capacity: a latent-variable approach to verbal and visuospatial memory span and reasoning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 133(3), 189–217.
Kemps, E. (1999). Effects of complexity on visuo-spatial working memory. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 11, 335–356. doi:10.1080/713752320.
Kemps, E. (2001). Complexity effects in visuo-spatial working memory: implications for the role of long-term memory. Memory, 9(1), 13–27. doi:10.1080/09658210042000012.
Kintsch, W., & Buschke, H. (1964). Homophones and synonyms in short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 80, 403–407. doi:10.1037/h0027477.
Klauer, K. C., & Zhao, Z. (2004). Double dissociations in visual and spatial short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 133(3), 355–381.
Kohler, S., Kapur, S., Moscovitch, M., Winocure, G., & Houle, S. (1995). Dissociation of pathways for object and spatial vision: a PET study in humans. NueroReport, 6, 1865–1868.
Kumar, A., & Jiang, Y. (2005). Visual short-term memory for sequential arrays. Memory & Cognition, 33(3), 488–498.
Levine, D. N., Warach, J., & Farah, M. J. (1985). Two visual systems in mental imagery: dissociation of “what” and “where” in imagery disorders due to bilateral posterior cerebral lesions. Neurology, 35(7), 1010–1018.
Logie, R. H. (1986). Visuo-spatial processing in working memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38A, 229–247.
Logie, R. H. (1989). Characteristics of visual short-term memory. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 1, 275–284. doi:10.1080/09541448908403088.
Logie, R. H. (1995). Visuo-spatial working memory. East Sussex: Erlbaum.
Luck, S. J., & Vogel, E. K. (1997). The capacity of visual working memory for features and conjunctions. Nature, 390, 279–281. doi:10.1038/36846.
Matlin, M. W. (2003). Cognition (5th ed.). New York: Wiley.
Maunsell, J. H., & McAdams, C. J. (2000). Effects of attention on neuronal response properties in visual cortex. In M. S. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The new cognitive neurosciences (pp. 290–305). Cambridge: MIT.
Maunsell, J. H., Nealey, T. A., & Depriest, D. D. (1990). Magnocellular and parvocellular contributions to responses in the middle temporal visual area (MT) of the macaque monkey. Journal of Neuroscience, 10, 3323–3334.
Middleton, F. A., & Strick, P. L. (2000). Basal ganglia output and cognition: evidence from anatomical, behavioral, and clinical studies. Brain and Cognition, 42(2), 183–200. doi:10.1006/brcg.1999.1099.
Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81–97. doi:10.1037/h0043158.
Mishkin, M., Ungerleider, L. G., & Macko, K. A. (1983). Object vision and spatial vision: two cortical pathways. Trends in Neuroscience, 6, 414–417. doi:10.1016/0166-2236(83)90190-X.
Miyake, A., Friedman, N. P., Rettinger, D. A., Shah, P., & Hegarty, M. (2001). How are visuospatial working memory, executive functioning and spatial abilities related? A latent-variable analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 130(4), 621–540.
Miyake, A., & Shah, P. (1999). Toward unified theories of working memories: Emerging general consensus, unresolved theoretical issues, and future research directions. In A. Miyake, & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 442–481). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mizumori, S. J. Y., Yeshenko, O., Gill, K. M., & Davis, D. M. (2004). Parallel processing across neural systems: implications for a multiple memory system hypothesis. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 82, 278–298. doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2004.07.007.
Morey, C. C., & Cowan, N. (2004). When visual and verbal memories conflict: evidence of cross-domain interference in working memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11, 296–301.
Morris, N. (1989). Spatial monitoring in visual working memory. British Journal of Psychology, 80, 333–349.
Mosimann, U. P., Mather, G., Wesnes, K. A., O’Brien, J. T., Burn, D. J., & McKeith, I. G. (2004). Visual perception in Parkinson disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. Neurology, 63, 2091–2096.
Motter, B. C. (1993). Focal attention produces spatially selective processing in visual cortical areas, V1, V2 and V4 in the presence of competing stimuli. Journal of Neurophysiology, 70(3), 909–919.
Nairne, J. S. (2002). Remembering over the short-term: the case against the standard model. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 53–81. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135131.
Naveh-Benjamin, M. (1987). Coding of spatial location information: an automatic process? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 13(4), 595–605. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.13.4.595.
Norman, D. A., & Shallice, T. (1986). Attention to action: Willed and automatic control of behavior. In R. J. Davidson, G. E. Schwarts, & D. Shapiro (Eds.), Consciousness and self-regulation: Advances in research and theory (vol. 4, (pp. 1–18)). New York: Plenum.
O’Craven, K. M., Downing, P., & Kanwisher, N. (1999). fMRI evidence for objects as the units of attentional selection. Nature, 401, 584–587. doi:10.1038/44134.
Oberauer, K. (2002). Access to information in working memory: exploring the focus of attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28, 411–421. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.28.3.411.
Oram, M. W., & Perrett, D. I. (1996). Integration of form and motion in the anterior superior temporal polysensory area (STPa) of the macaque monkey. Journal of Neurophysiology, 76, 109–129.
Owen, A. M. (1997). The functional organization of working memory processes within human lateral frontal cortex: the contribution of functional neuroimaging. European Journal of Neuroscience, 9, 1329–1339. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.1997.tb01487.x.
Owen, A. M., Evans, A. C., & Petrides, M. (1996). Evidence for a two-stage model of spatial working memory processing within the lateral frontal cortex: a positron emission tomography study. Cereb Cortex, 6(1), 31–38. doi:10.1093/cercor/6.1.31.
Owen, A. M., Stern, C. E., Look, R. B., Tracy, I., Rosen, B. R., & Petrides, M. (1998). Functional organization of spatial and nonspatial working memory processing within the human lateral frontal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 95, 7721–7726. doi:10.1073/pnas.95.13.7721.
Parmentier, F. B. R., Elford, G., & Maybery, M. (2005). Transitional information in spatial serial memory: Path characteristics affect recall performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31(3), 412–427. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.31.3.412.
Paulesu, E., Frith, C. D., & Frackowiak, R. S. J. (1993). The neural correlates of the verbal component of working memory. Nature, 362, 342–345. doi:10.1038/362342a0.
Paulesu, E., Frith, U., Snowling, M., Gallagher, A., Morton, J., Frackowiak, R. S. J., et al. (1996). Is developmental dyslexia a disconnection syndrome? Evidence from PET scanning. Brain, 119, 143–157. doi:10.1093/brain/119.1.143.
Paxinos, G., & Mai, J. K. (Eds.). (2004). The human nervous system (2nd ed.). San Diego: Elsevier Academic.
Phillips, W. A., & Christie, D. F. M. (1977). Interference with visualization. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 29, 637–650. doi:10.1080/14640747708400638.
Pickering, S. J. (2001). Cognitive approaches to the fractionation of visuospatial working memory. Cortex, 37, 457–473. doi:10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70587-2.
Pickering, S. J., Gathercole, S. E., Hall, M., & Lloyd, S. A. (2001). Development of memory for pattern and path: further evidence for the fractionation of visuo-spatial memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54A, 397–420. doi:10.1080/02724980042000174.
Pohl, W. (1973). Dissociation of spatial discrimination deficits following frontal and parietal lesions in monkeys. The Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 82(2), 227–239. doi:10.1037/h0033922.
Posner, M. I. (1978). Chronometric explorations of mind. Hillsdale: Erlbaum.
Postle, B. R., & D’Esposito, M. (1999). “What”-then-“where” in visual working memory: An event-related fMRI study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 11, 585–597. doi:10.1162/089892999563652.
Postle, B. R., D’Esposito, M., & Corkin, S. (2005). Effects of verbal and nonverbal interference on spatial and object working memory. Memory & Cognition, 33, 203–212.
Postle, B. R., Stern, C. E., Rosen, B. R., & Corkin, S. (2000). An fMRI investigation of cortical contributions of spatial and nonspatial visual working memory. NeuroImage, 11, 409–423. doi:10.1006/nimg.2000.0570.
Postma, A., & DeHaan, E. H. F. (1996). What was where: Memory for object locations. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49A(1), 178–199. doi:10.1080/027249896392856.
Quinn, J. G. (1988). Interference effects in the visuo-spatial sketchpad. In M. Denis, J. Englekamp, & J. T. E. Richardson (Eds.), Cognitive and neuropsychological approaches to mental imagery (pp. 181–189). Amsterdam: Martinus Nijhoff.
Quinn, J. G., & McConnell, J. (1996). Irrelevant pictures in visual working memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49A, 200–215. doi:10.1080/027249896392865.
Rao, S. C., Rainer, G., & Miller, E. K. (1997). Integration of what and where in the primate prefrontal cortex. Science, 276, 821–824. doi:10.1126/science.276.5313.821.
Rensink, R. A. (2002). Change detection. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 245–277. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135125.
Ricciardi, E., Bonino, D., Gentili, C., Sani, L., Pietrini, P., & Vecchi, T. (2006). Neural correlates of spatial working memory in humans: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study comparing visual and tactile processes. Neuroscience, 139, 339–349. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2005.08.045.
Riddoch, M. J., Humphreys, G. W., Blott, W., & Hardy, E. (2003). Visual and spatial short-term memory in integrative agnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 20(7), 641–671. doi:10.1080/02643290342000078.
Rizzo, M., & Robin, D. A. (1990). Simultanagnosia: a defect of sustained attention yields insights on visual information processing. Neurology, 40, 447–455.
Rugg, M. D., & Coles, M. G. H. (1995). Electrophysiology of mind: Event-related brain potentials and cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Salameì, P., & Baddeley, A. D. (1982). Disruption of short-term memory by unattended speech: Implications for the structure of working memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 21, 150–164. doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(82)90521-7.
Salmon, D. P., & Filoteo, J. V. (2007). Neuropsychology of cortical versus subcortical dementia syndromes. Seminars in Neurology, 27(1), 7–21. doi:10.1055/s-2006-956751.
Sawaguchi, T., & Goldman-Rakic, P. S. (1994). The role of D1-dopamine receptor in working memory: Local injections of dopamine antagonists into the prefrontal cortex of rhesus monkeys performing an oculomotor delayed-response task. Journal of Neurophysiology, 71(2), 515–528.
Schweickert, R., & Boruff, B. (1986). Short-term memory capacity: magic number of magic spell? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 12, 419–425. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.12.3.419.
Shen, L., Hu, X., Yacoub, E., & Ugurbil, K. (1999). Neural correlates of visual form and visual spatial processing. Human Brain Mapping, 8, 60–71. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097-0193(1999)8:1<60::AID-HBM5>3.0.CO;2-6.
Siegel, G. J., Albers, R. W., Brady, S. T., & Price, D. L. (Eds.). (2006). Basic Neurochemistry: Molecular, Cellular and Medical Aspects (7th ed.). New York: Elsevier Academic.
Simons, D. J. (1996). In sight, out of mind: when object representations fail. Psychological Science, 7, 301–305. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00378.x.
Singhal, A. (2006). Differentiating between spatial and object-based working memory using complex stimuli: an erp study. International Journal of Neuroscience, 116(12), 1457–1469. doi:10.1080/00207450500514342.
Smith, E. E., & Jonides, J. (1999). Storage and executive processes in the frontal lobes. Science, 283, 1657–1660. doi:10.1126/science.283.5408.1657.
Smith, E. E., Jonides, J., Koeppe, R. A., Awh, E., Schumacher, E., & Minoshima, S. (1995). Spatial versus object working memory: PET investigation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 7(3), 337–356. doi:10.1162/jocn.1995.7.3.337.
Smyth, M. M. (1996). Interference with rehearsal in spatial working memory in the absence of eye movements. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49A(4), 940–949. doi:10.1080/027249896392379.
Smyth, M. M., Pearson, N. A., & Pendleton, L. R. (1988). Movement and working memory: Patterns and positions in space. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 40A, 497–514.
Smyth, M. M., & Scholey, K. A. (1994). Interference in spatial immediate memory. Memory & Cognition, 22, 1–13.
Soto, D., & Blanco, M. J. (2004). Spatial attention and object-based attention: a comparison within a single task. Vision Research, 44, 69–81. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2003.08.013.
Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Cognitive psychology (3rd ed.). New York: Wadsworth.
Teasdale, J. D., Dritschel, B. H., Taylor, M. J., Proctor, L., Lloyd, C. A., Nimmo-Smith, I., et al. (1995). Stimulus-independent thought depends on central executive resources. Memory & Cognition, 23, 551–559.
Tiraboschi, P., Salmon, D. P., Hansen, L. A., Hofstetter, R. C., Thal, L. J., & Corey-Bloom, J. (2006). What best differentiates Lewy body from Alzheimer’s disease in early-stage dementia? Brain, 129, 729–735. doi:10.1093/brain/awh725.
Toms, M., Morris, N., & Foley, P. (1994). Characteristics of visual interference with visuospatial working memory. British Journal of Psychology, 85(1), 131–144.
Treisman, A. M. (1969). Strategies and models of selective attention. Psychological Review, 76(3), 282–299. doi:10.1037/h0027242.
Tresch, M. C., Sinnamon, H. M., & Seamon, J. G. (1993). Double dissociation of spatial and object visual memory: evidence from selective interference in intact human subjects. Neuropsychologia, 31, 211–219. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(93)90085-E.
Ungerleider, L. G., Courtney, S. M., & Haxby, J. V. (1998). A neural system for human visual working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., 95, 883–890. doi:10.1073/pnas.95.3.883.
Ungerleider, L. G., & Haxby, J. V. (1994). “What” and “where” in the human brain. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 4, 157–165. doi:10.1016/0959-4388(94)90066-3.
Ungerleider, L. G., & Mishkin, M. (1982). Two cortical visual systems. In D. J. Ingle, M. A. Goodale, & R. J. W. Mansfield (Eds.), Analysis of visual behavior. Cambridge: MIT.
Van Essen, D. C., Anderson, C. H., & Felleman, D. J. (1992). Information processing in the primate visual system: an integrated systems perspective. Science, 255, 419–423. doi:10.1126/science.1734518.
Vecera, S. P., & Rizzo, M. (2003). Spatial attention: normal processes and their breakdown. Neurologic Clinics of North America, 21, 575–607.
Ventre-Dominey, J., Bailly, A., Lavenne, F., LeBars, D., Mollion, H., Costes, N., et al. (2005). Double dissociation in neural correlates of visual working memory: a PET study. Cognitive Brain Research, 25, 747–759. doi:10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2005.09.004.
Viney, W., & King, D. B. (2003). A history of psychology ideas and context (3rd ed.). New York: Pearson Education.
Vogel, E. K., Woodman, G. F., & Luck, S. J. (2001). Storage of features, conjunctions and objects in visual working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27(1), 92–114. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.27.1.92.
Weisman, D., & McKeith, I. (2007). Dementia with Lewy bodies. Seminars in Neurology, 27(1), 42–47. doi:10.1055/s-2006-956754.
Wickelgren, W. A. (1965). Acoustic similarity and intrusion errors in short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, 102–108. doi:10.1037/h0022015.
Winkler, I., & Cowan, N. (2005). From sensory to long-term memory: evidence from auditory memory reactivation studies. Experimental Psychology, 52(1), 3–20. doi:10.1027/1618-3169.52.1.3.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McAfoose, J., Baune, B.T. Exploring Visual–Spatial Working Memory: A Critical Review of Concepts and Models. Neuropsychol Rev 19, 130–142 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-008-9063-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-008-9063-0