Langerock, N. , Vergauwe, E. & Barrouillet, P.
Developmental Cognitive Psychology Team, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Domain-general attentional as well as domain-specific resources have been shown to be involved in maintaining verbal (e.g., letters) or visuo-spatial (e.g., locations) information in working memory However, it is not clear whether these same kind of resources are involved in maintaining cross-domain information (e.g., letters in locations). The involvement of domain-general resources was tested using a complex span task in which cross-domain storage of letters presented in different locations was combined with a neutral processing task (tone discrimination) involving either a low, a medium, or a high cognitive load. Span decreased as the cognitive load of the neutral processing task increased, which is in line with the involvement of domain-general resources. The involvement of domain-specific resources, over and above domain-general resources, was tested using the same cross-domain storage task but combined with either a verbal (semantic judgments) or a spatial (fit judgments) processing task, in which the cognitive load was manipulated in the same way. Interference with domain-specific resources was found only in the verbal domain. This suggests that domain-general attentional resources are clearly involved in maintaining cross-domain information, as well as verbal domain-specific resources.