Executive working memory involved in the learning of contextual cueing effect

Implicit learning of spatial layouts occurs when target–distractor configurations repeat during a visual search task [contextual cueing; Chun and Jiang in Cogn Psychol 36(1): 28–17, 1998]. This study addressed the extent to which contextual cueing depends on executive working memory (WM). In three experiments, participants performed a contextual cueing visual search task concurrently with a WM task. The WM task was either executive (subtract 3 from each digit in WM) or non-executive (hold digits in WM), and was either low load (Experiment 1) or high load (Experiment 2). Contextual cueing was attenuated in the high-load executive WM condition. Experiment 3 replicated our findings using a within-subjects design, and confirmed the interpretation that executive functions of WM are required in contextual learning.