Fig. 2.

Visually matched spatial working memory and verbal working memory tasks. Example trial sequences for experiment 1 (a) SWM only and (b) VWM only. For the SWM only task participants were instructed to remember the locations of the letters (and the temporal order in which they were presented), but to ignore the identity of the letters. For the VWM only task participants were instructed to remember the identity of the letters, but to ignore the locations in which they appeared. The sequence of locations/letters had to be retained across a 2,500 ms interval after which a probe screen appeared. Participants were instructed to make a button response ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to indicate whether the central number corresponded to the temporal position in which that location (SWM)/letter (VWM) had been presented (see “Methods”). Previous data confirms that these tasks are matched for task difficulty (Anderson et al. 2008)