Spatial information and visuospatial memory: Are the location of an object (WHERE) and the motion of an object (HOW) processed as the same module in spatial memory?

This study examined whether two types of information (location and motion) were processed as the same module in spatial memory. In this experiment, the selective interference paradigm, consisting of primary tasks and secondary interference tasks, was used. When participants were asked to retain location information and to carry out the secondary perceptual task (location) during the retention interval, the memory performance was deteriorated more than to carry out the secondary motion task. Similarly, when they were to retain motion information, the memory performance was severely interfered with the secondary motion task. These results suggested that even though these two types of information were considered spatial information, location information and motion information were independent of each other.