ABSTRACT
We permanently process and transform many different kinds of mental representations. In some cases the representations are supported by external cues, in others the representations have to be temporarily maintained because the represented entities are no longer present. Usually therefore this mental work has a memory as well as an active transformation component. This is the reason why the term working memory was coined for the mental system(s) that provide these cognitive processes. Accordingly, different research traditions exist. Some people focus on temporary memory (often called short-term memory), which is frequently investigated in change detection tasks (e.g., Luck & Vogel, 1997), whereas others focus on processes (e.g., Oberauer, Süβ, Schulze, Wilhelm, & Wittmann, 2000), and still others focus on the division in structural components that are mainly defined by their specific content (e.g., Baddeley & Hitch, 1974). Specifically in the latter type of models usually a distinction between a verbal and a visual subcomponent can be found. Visual working memory is the component that represents and transforms visually perceived information. Additionally, within visual working memory processing of visual and spatial information is frequently distinguished. However, it is rarely specified what spatial information is and how it is represented.
