Measurement and interference of visual-spatial memory

The structure and function of visual-spatial working memory are currently attracting great interest from cognitive, neuropsychological, and developmental perspectives. Despite evidence that visual and spatial working memory may be dissociable, many studies make use of complex tasks where the relative weight of visual and spatial processing is unknown and which often make demands on attentional executive resources. This research program will use dual-task methodology to assess the utility of newly developed tasks to specifically assess either visual or spatial working memory in children and adults. By administering secondary tasks that vary in the extent to which they involve visual, spatial, verbal, and executive processing, it will be possible to determine whether visual and spatial memory are dissociable, how they can be measured in their 'purest' form, and the methods by which it is possible to selectively disrupt visual or spatial processing. The results have the potential to be of benefit to researchers in a variety of domains where an understanding of the visual-spatial skills and resources is important, for example, children's learning and developmental disorders, expertise domains, psychological disorders, and memory recollection.