The role of working memory in a double span task

This paper introduces a double span task to activate all three components of Baddeley and Hitch's working memory model simultaneously. Subjects were presented with sequences of words or pictures which appeared one by one at a different, randomly chosen location on a 4 x 4 grid. Subsequently they were asked for the serial recall of content, location or both. A dual task paradigm was used to investigate the effects of articulatory suppression, visuo-spatial tapping and a central executive suppression task on the three types of recall In addition to classical interference effects of verbal and visuo-spatial suppression on recall of content and location respectively, a triple dissociation between all three working memory subsystems was found.