Processing symmetry between visual and auditory spatial representations in updating working memory.

Updating spatial representations in visual and auditory working memory relies on common processes, and the modalities should compete for attentional resources. If competition occurs, one type of spatial information is presumably weighted over the other, irrespective of sensory modality. This study used incompatible spatial information conveyed from two different cue modalities to examine relative dominance in memory updating.

Auditory enhancement of visual searches for event scenes.

Increasing research has revealed that uninformative spatial sounds facilitate the early processing of visual stimuli. This study examined the crossmodal interactions of semantically congruent stimuli by assessing whether the presentation of event-related characteristic sounds facilitated or interfered with the visual search for corresponding event scenes in pictures. The search array consisted of four images: one target and three non-target pictures.

Beat Patterns Determine Inter-Hand Differences in Synchronization Error in a Bimanual Coordination Tapping Task.

A previous study reported the unique finding that people tapping a beat pattern with the right hand produce larger negative synchronization error than when tapping with the left hand or other effectors, in contrast to previous studies that have shown that the hands tap patterns simultaneously without any synchronization errors. We examined whether the inter-hand difference in synchronization error occurred due to handedness or to a specificity of the beat pattern employed in that study. Two experiments manipulated the hand-beat assignments.

A label indicating an old year of establishment improves evaluations of restaurants and shops serving traditional foods.

This study examined whether the presence of product information focused on a past era (e.g., year of establishment) improved consumers' evaluations of a shop serving traditional products when the label and shop were congruent in terms of temporal focus.

Commonalities of visual and auditory working memory in a spatial-updating task.

Although visual and auditory inputs are initially processed in separate perception systems, studies have built on the idea that to maintain spatial information these modalities share a component of working memory. The present study used working memory navigation tasks to examine functional similarities and dissimilarities in the performance of updating tasks. Participants mentally updated the spatial location of a target in a virtual array in response to sequential pictorial and sonant directional cues before identifying the target's final location.

Replicability of the Curvature Effect as a Function of Presentation Time and Response Measure in Japanese Observers.

Although objects with curved contours are generally preferred over those with sharp-angled contours, the strength of this preference varies according to several factors. In the present study, non-Western Japanese observers viewed and rated their preferences (e.g.

Effects of Visual Working Memory on Individual Differences in Echolocation Performance in Sighted Participants.

Echolocation performance differs widely among individuals. This study examined a possible factor that may explain this variation, namely, visual working memory, which is a subcomponent of spatial working memory. Sighted participants performed an object-detection task consisting of initial testing on 2 separate days (up to 8 days apart) with follow-up testing on a third day (up to 1 month after the second day of testing) while manipulating the target distance from 20 to 50 cm.