2011 space odyssey: spatialization as a mechanism to code order allows a close encounter between memory expertise and classic immediate memory studies

Abstract : In 2011 van Dijk and Fias with an innovative working memory paradigm showed for the first time that words to-be-remembered, presented sequentially at the center of a screen acquired a new spatial dimension: the first words of the sequence acquired a left spatial value while the last words acquired a right spatial value. In this article, we argue that this spatialization which putatively underpins how order is coded in immediate memory 1 allows bridging the domain of memory expertise with classic immediate memory studies. After briefly reviewing the mechanisms for coding order in immediate memory and the recent studies pointing toward spatialization as an explanatory mechanism, we will pinpoint similar mechanisms that are known to exist in memory expertise, particularly in the method of loci. We will terminate by analyzing what these similarities can tell us about expertise.