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The role of working memory components in multimedia comprehension
Author(s) -
Gyselinck Valérie,
Jamet Eric,
Dubois Véronique
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.1411
Subject(s) - working memory , comprehension , modality (human–computer interaction) , cognition , psychology , cognitive psychology , task (project management) , presentation (obstetrics) , information processing , cognitive load , dual (grammatical number) , control (management) , component (thermodynamics) , short term memory , multimedia , computer science , human–computer interaction , artificial intelligence , linguistics , medicine , philosophy , physics , management , neuroscience , economics , radiology , programming language , thermodynamics
This article argues that conducting experiments involving the ability to control and even manipulate the cognitive load in working memory (WM; storage and or processing load) should make it possible to identify the processes involved during the integration of information coming from multiple sources. Some experiments using the dual‐task paradigm are reviewed, and an original experiment using complex multimedia material is presented. Overall, the experiments show that even in cases where subjects have to navigate between different types of information and have to integrate various items of information, the verbal storage component of WM is important in permitting comprehension. Visuospatial WM is in addition involved as soon as visuospatial processing is required. Storage of verbal information does not however depend on the modality of presentation and the classical modality effect appears to depend on individual differences. Some theoretical and practical implications of these results are drawn. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.