Visuospatial bootstrapping: Long-term memory representations are necessary for implicit binding of verbal and visuospatial working memory.

Darling, Stephen; Allen, Richard; Havelka, Jelena; Campbell, Aileen; Rattray, Emma

It has recently been shown that presenting additional visuospatial information alongside to-be-remembered numbers in a digit span task enhances participants' memory for those items. However, the mechanisms behind this visuospatial bootstrapping effect have remained unspecified. In this article, we report evidence that this effect involves an integration of information from verbal and visuospatial temporary memory with long-term-memory (LTM) representations and that the existence of a relevant LTM representation is necessary for bootstrapping to occur.

SCOTLAND; LONG-term memory; STATISTICAL bootstrapping; NUMBER concept; SHORT-term memory; QUEEN Margaret University (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2012, Vol 19, Issue 2, p258

1069-9384

Academic Journal

10.3758/s13423-011-0197-3