Kruley, P., Sciama, S. C., & Glenberg, A. M. (1994). On-line processing of textual illustrations in the visuospatial sketchpad: Evidence from dual-task studies. Memory and Cognition, 22(3), 261-272.

Kruley, P.; Sciama, S.; Glenberg, A.

1994

Kruley, P., Sciama, S. C., & Glenberg, A. M. (1994). On-line processing of textual illustrations in the visuospatial sketchpad: Evidence from dual-task studies. Memory and Cognition, 22(3), 261-272.

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We present evidence that the comprehension of illustrated tee makes use of the visuospatial sketchpad component ofworking memory. The results from three experiments demonstrate that the comprehending of teats that are accompanied by pictures interferes with the performance of a spatial short-term memory task more than does the comprehending of texts that have no pictures. A fourth experiment demonstrates that the interference is found only when there is a requirement to comprehend the text; that is, the simple presentation of the texts and their pictures did not degrade performance on the spatial task. Finally, we show that the comprehension of illustrated texts does not differentially interfere with a verbal short-term memory task. These results are consistent with the claim that illustrations accompanying a text encourage the formation of a spatial mental model with the use of the working memory's sketchpad

The presence of a picture had no effect on performance of the concurrent digit task. This suggests that the interference found in Experiments 1 and 2A- 2B was specific to visuospatial processing. In Experiments I, 2A, and 2B, performance on the preload version of the concurrent task was impaired in the picture condition relative to the no-picture condition, whereas in Experiment 4, performance on the preload concurrent task did not differ across picture conditions; consequently, we conclude that picture presence interferes with a concurrent task only when that task is visual or spatial in nature

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