The Presence of Visuospatial Bootstrapping in Sequences of Letters
Abstract
The phenomenon of visuospatial bootstrapping, refers to the binding between verbal
and visuospatial short-term memory with long-term memory representations. It is argued that
this pattern provides evidence towards models of working memory that incorporate an
episodic buffer as opposed to original models of working memory.
The current study was particularly concerned with investigating a visuospatial
bootstrapping effect within sequences of letters across three display types: Typical, Random
and Single. Twenty-five participants were recruited for the study, whereby participants took
part in an immediate serial recall task of sequences of letters. The results from the experiment
showed a significant effect for display type and serial position, therefore providing evidence
of a bootstrapping effect within sequences of letters, which is a novel finding for
bootstrapping research.