A systematic examination and modeling of STM across modalities and domains: a step towards reconciling modularity and functional equivalence

短期内的连续顺序处理和信息保留是一系列认知活动的基础。这些活动不仅局限于语言，而且涵盖了空间领域。然而，大多数研究工作都集中在语言信息的短期记忆（STM）上。由于语言的顺序性，言语记忆管理的研究一直侧重于序列顺序处理，并采用列表学习范式，如经典的序列回忆任务。然而，对空间信息记忆的研究主要集中在对单个项目或同时呈现的一系列物体的短期保留上，主要是通过识别和变化检测范式。在过去的二十年中，语言和空间之间的分离的证据已经积累起来，并导致了模块化的几乎普遍采用。事实上，STM的研究在很大程度上是由模块化的概念推动的，在这个概念中，认知被视为处理特定类型信息（语言和空间）和模式（听觉和视觉）的模块的功能。然而，越来越多的证据对STM模块化观点的真实性提出了质疑。事实上，当语言和空间STM任务在过程需求方面被仔细地等同起来时，许多传统上与语言STM相关的现象被扩展到空间领域。目前的研究计划将试图缩小STM对立观点之间的差距，并平衡支持和反对模块化的证据。根据建议的主要目标，实证工作分为三个主题：i)建立感知组织与空间信息的STM之间的密切联系；ii)重新审视与所谓的视觉短期记忆有关的现象，并将概念测试扩展到串行记忆；iii)测试感知-手势框架（STM的一种具身认知观点）在解释空间STM现象中的适用性。拟议的研究计划将提供有助于调和功能等效和模块化的明显矛盾的发现集的数据，并为STM的重新解释提供证据。

Serial order processing and retention of information over the short term are at the basis of a wide range of cognitive activities. Those activities are not restrictively related to language but also cover the spatial domain. Nevertheless, most of the research work has focused on short-term memory (STM) for verbal information. Due to the sequential nature of language, research on verbal STM has been preoccupied with serial order processing and employed list learning paradigms such as the classical serial recall task. Research on memory for spatial information has, however, centred its interest on the short-term retention of a single item or an array of simultaneously presented objects mostly through recognition and change-detection paradigms. Evidence of dissociations between verbal and spatial has accumulated over the last two decades and led to the almost universal adoption of modularity. Indeed, the study of STM has been largely driven by the concept of modularity whereby cognition is viewed as the functioning of modules processing specific types of information (verbal and spatial) and modalities (auditory and visual). However, an emerging body of evidence challenges the veracity of the modular view of STM. Indeed, when verbal and spatial STM tasks are carefully equated in terms of process requirements, a number of phenomena classically associated with verbal STM are extended to the spatial domain. The present program of research will attempt to narrow the gap between opposing views of STM and balance the evidence for and against modularity. The empirical work is divided in three themes according to key objectives of the proposal: i) To establish the close link between perceptual organisation and STM for spatial information; ii) To revisit phenomena associated with the so-called visual short-term memory (VSTM) and extend the testing of concepts to serial memory; iii) To test the applicability of the perceptual-gestural framework - an embodied cognition view of STM - to account for spatial STM phenomena. The proposed program of research will provide data that should contribute to reconcile apparently contradictory sets of findings of functional equivalence and modularity, and provide evidence for a reinterpretation of STM.