The Effect of a Verbal Concurrent Task on Visual Precision in Working Memory

Abstract. By investigating the effect of individualized verbal load on a visual working memory task, we investigated whether working memory is better captured by modality-specific stores or a general attentional resource. A visual measure was used that allows for the precision of representations in working memory to be quantified. Bayesian analyses were employed to contrast the likelihood of our data assuming a small versus a large effect, as predicted by the differing accounts. We found evidence that the effect of verbal load on visual precision and binary feature recall was small. The results were indeterminate for the size of the dual task effect on verbal accuracy and the probability of recalling a continuous target feature. These results, in part, support a multiple component account of working memory. An analysis of how the chosen effect intervals affect the results is also reported, highlighting the importance of making specific predictions in the literature.