Sources of Flexibility in Human Cognition: Dual-Task Studies of Space and Language
Abstract
Under many circumstances, children and adult rats reorient themselves through a process which operates only on information about the shape of the environment (e.g., Cheng, 1986; Hermer & Spelke, 1996). In contrast, human adults relocate themselves more flexibly, by conjoining geometric and nongeometric information to specify their position (Hermer & Spelke, 1994). The present experiments used a dual-task method to investigate the processes that underlie the flexible conjunction of information. In Experiment 1, subjects reoriented themselves flexibly when they performed no secondary task, but they reoriented themselves like children and adult rats when they engaged in verbal shadowing of continuous speech. In Experiment 2, subjects who engaged in nonverbal shadowing of a continuous rhythm reoriented like nonshadowing subjects, suggesting that the interference effect in Experiment 1 did not stem from general limits on working memory or attention but from processes more specific to language. In further experiments, verbally shadowing subjects detected and remembered both nongeometric information (Experiment 3) and geometric information (Experiments 1, 2, and 4), but they failed to conjoin the two types of information to specify the positions of objects (Experiment 4). Together, the experiments suggest that humans' flexible spatial memory depends on the ability to combine diverse information sources rapidly into unitary representations and that this ability, in turn, depends on n…
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Articulatory suppression to interfere with inner speech on cognitive tasks has been widely used in children and adults.
“Articulatory suppression to interfere with inner speech on cognitive tasks has been widely used in children and adults (Baldo et al., 2005; Hermer-Vazquez, Spelke, & Katsnelson, 1999; Lidstone, Meins, & Fernyhough, 2010).”
From Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology (2015) · cites this paper as Hermer-Vazquez, Spelke, & Katsnelson, 1999
Verbal shadowing interfered with performance on a task requiring integration of geometric and color information, suggesting a role for inner speech in labeling and binding across modalities.
“Hermer-Vazquez et al. (1999) showed that verbal shadowing interfered with performance on a task requiring integration of geometric and color information, suggesting a role for inner speech in the labeling and binding of information across modalities.”
From Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology (2015) · cites this paper as Hermer-Vazquez et al., 1999
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- Authors
- Hermer-Vazquez, L., Spelke, E. S., & Katsnelson, A. S.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- ORCID
- Spelke, Elizabeth S.
- Venue
- Cognitive Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1999-08
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3-36
- ISSN
- 0010-0285 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2125306983
- Cited by
- 589
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 47 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 58.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cognitive Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5f31mh010607-02)
- National Institute of Mental Health (1 F31 MH10607)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD23103)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Spatial Cognition and Navigation
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Categorization, perception, and language
- Keywords
- spatial reorientation, dual-task interference, working memory, attention, unitary representations
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Animals, Attention, Child, Cognition, Female, Humans, Imitative Behavior, Male, Orientation, Reaction Time, Social Environment, Speech Perception, Verbal Behavior, Rats
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