A visual working memory task interferes with tactile selective attention.
Single Paper Presentation

Polly Dalton
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford

Nilli Lavie
Department of Psychology, University College London

Charles Spence
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford

     Abstract ID Number: 55
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: March 15, 2006
     Presentation date: 06/20/2006 10:00 AM in Hamilton Building, Foyer
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
Working memory has been shown to play an important role in the control of visual selective attention (Lavie et al., 2004). Here, we investigated whether tactile attentional control also depends on the availability of working memory resources. Participants performed a tactile selective attention task in which they were asked to respond to continuous target vibrations whilst ignoring pulsed distractor vibrations. While carrying out this task, participants also had to remember a sequence of digits, presented either in numerical order (low working memory load) or in random order (high load). Distractor interference in the tactile task was found to be greater under high (vs. low) working memory load. This finding is particularly striking given that the working memory task required the retention of visually-presented material. Our results therefore suggest that, just as for the case of visual selective attention, the successful control of tactile selective attention requires the availability of working memory resources.