Can valuable information be prioritized in verbal working memory?

Atkinson, Amy Louise; Allen, Richard J.; Baddeley, Alan; Hitch, Graham J.; Waterman, Amanda H. · 2020 · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition

DOI: 10.1037/xlm0000979

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Summary

This study investigates whether individuals can strategically prioritize high-value information within verbal working memory (WM), a capability well-established in visual WM but largely unexplored in the auditory-verbal domain. The research addresses a gap in understanding whether attentional control mechanisms are modality-general or specific to visual processing. The authors hypothesized that participants could direct attention to specific serial positions of auditory digit sequences based on assigned value, even when verbal rehearsal and executive resources were disrupted. Four experiments were conducted using an immediate serial recall task. Participants listened to sequences of nine digits and attempted to recall them in order. In Experiments 1a and 1b, participants were instructed that a specific serial position (3, 5, or 7) was worth more points than others, or that all items were of equal value (control). Experiment 1b specifically controlled for distinctiveness effects by ensuring the high-value cue did not create a unique visual isolation effect. Experiments 2 and 3 introduced concurrent tasks to disrupt cognitive resources: Experiment 2 used a simple task to disrupt verbal rehearsal, while Experiment 3 used a complex task to disrupt both rehearsal and executive control. The results demonstrated that participants successfully prioritized high-value items in auditory-verbal WM. Recall accuracy for the targeted serial positions was significantly higher in differential value conditions compared to the control condition. This effect persisted even when verbal rehearsal was disrupted by a concurrent task. However, prioritization came at a cost: under complex concurrent task conditions, performance on non-prioritized items dropped to chance levels, indicating that attention was reallocated rather than expanded. Additionally, a robust recency advantage for the final item in the sequence was observed across all conditions, suggesting that automatic attentional processes operate alongside strategic control. These findings indicate that strategic prioritization in verbal WM is not reliant on verbal rehearsal mechanisms and shares similarities with visual WM prioritization, supporting the view that the focus of attention within WM is modality-general. The study concludes that individuals can flexibly allocate limited attentional resources to valuable verbal information, but this strategic enhancement involves neglecting less valuable items, particularly when cognitive resources are constrained. This extends the understanding of WM architecture, suggesting that attentional control processes are integral to verbal storage and retrieval, not just visual.

Key finding

Individuals can strategically prioritize high-value information in auditory-verbal working memory, enhancing recall for targeted items even under conditions that disrupt verbal rehearsal and executive resources.

Methodology

lab_experiment

Provenance

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Topics

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• working memory