Multimodal Working Memory: The Unfolding Story

• Published in: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting 2005, Vol.49 (3), p.337-341
• Main Authors: Samman, Shatha N., Sims, Valerie, Stanney, Kay M.
• Format: Review
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1541-9312; 1071-1813; 2169-5067
• DOI: 10.1177/154193120504900326

Given the prevalence of information overload, it is essential that systems are designed utilizing multiple communication media. Wickens' (1984) Multiple Resource Theory (MRT) suggests that performance efficiency may be realized via multiple sensory, processing, and response modalities. Recently, modality-specific working memory (WM) subsystems have been proposed, which include verbal, visual, spatial, kinesthetic, tactile, and tonal components. However, it has yet to be determined if modality-specific subsystems exhibit separate systems with their own resources, or if all or a subset of these systems shared certain resources in a global WM unit. The purpose of this study was to examine if the modality-specific subsystems were indicative of separate WM resources or shared common resources. Results demonstrated no interference between modality-specific subsystems, suggesting that they pull from separate WM resource pool. These findings support the expansion of the MRT to a multimodal WM processing system and great promise for multimodal design.