Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The effect of prioritization on information in working memory has primarily been examined in tasks containing a single type of stimulus and with one item that is prioritized. However, many theories of working memory posit different types of components for the maintenance of verbal or visuospatial information. This study examined differences between prioritized and nonprioritized items as well as word and image stimuli. Participants completed an association learning task in which working memory demands were varied along with the number of items to be prioritized. Following a short delay, retention was tested. Prioritization effects were identified during both the learning and testing phases of the experiment, and the impact of prioritization was moderated by working memory demands of the task. Significant differences in accuracy between word and image stimuli were only observed in the testing phase, with accuracy for verbal information being worse. While prioritization improved accuracy and response times during learning, it led to decreases in the testing phase.