The structure of human attention: Evidence for separate spatial and verbal resource pools

Abstract

Recent evidence has suggested that human limited-capacity information-processing resources do not reside in a unitary, undifferentiated pool. Rather, multiple and at least partially independent pools appear to exist. The present investigation addressed this issue. Subjects performed a spatial memory load secondary task in conjunction with either a spatial or a verbal primary task. The two primary tasks were structurally highly similar. Results indicated that performance of the spatial memory load secondary task was significantly poorer when it was paired with the spatial primary task than when it was paired with the verbal primary task. The results are interpreted as indicating the existence of at least partially independent spatial and verbal resource pools. © 1985, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.