Body Position Influences Maintenance of Objects in Visual Short-Term Memory Mia J. Branson, Joshua D. Cosman, and Shaun P. Vecera Department of Psychology, University of Iowa Introduction Recent work suggests that body position influences the deployment of attention (Reed, Betz, Garza, & Roberts, 2010). This work has shown benefits of body position on attention allocation via low-level perceptual processes. The aim of the present study was to examine possible higher-level cognitive benefits of body position on the allocation of attention. We aimed to investigate effects of body position on visual short-term memory (VSTM), a cognitive rather than perceptual process. Our design was based on the four item capacity theory of VSTM (Vogel, Woodman, & Luck, 2001). To test items stored in VSTM we employed a change detection task, which involved the movement of display items both towards and away from the hand. We hypothesized that body position would affect items already stored in VSTM, and those items moving towards the body (hand) would be remembered more accurately. Approximately 30 subjects participated for course credit. Experiment 1 did not include the hand manipulation as it served as a control. In Experiment 2, participants completed one half of the experiment with the right hand positioned on the computer monitor and the other half with the left hand near the monitor. Responses were made using the hand not positioned near the monitor. Subjects were instructed to remember the colors presented in the vertical placeholders. Then, the colors disappeared from the placeholders. The empty placeholder boxes then moved both towards and away from the hand, then moved back to their origin at fixation. A single color item was presented in one of the placeholders. Subjects responded based on whether or not the test item matched or did not match one of the previous to-be- remembered colored items. Results Discussion * * Methods Sample of a typical trial. This figure is specific to the hand manipulation (Experiment 2). The same task and procedure was used in Experiment 1, except the hands were not positioned near the monitor. This figure illustrates the hand positioned near the monitor in Experiment 2. This figure shows the mean reaction times for Experiment 2. When a change occurred, the effect of hand position was marginally significant. (p<.058). This figure illustrates sensitivity measured by A’. This is a measure of accuracy, which is formulated by the hits, correct rejections, misses, and false alarms responses for the test item on each trial. There is a significant difference between the hand and no hand conditions (p=.05) Mean reaction time for right hand in Experiment 2. Our results suggest that body position influences the representation of items stored in VSTM. Subjects showed greater sensitivity for items moving towards the hand than away from the hand. Also, subjects were faster to detect a change for items moving towards the hand. Previous work has shown that attention can function to protect items in VSTM (Matsukura, Luck, & Vecera, 2007). To explain these results, we argue that visual attention is being tracked towards the hand, and it is this tracking of attention which protects those items in VSTM. The hand might be serving as an implicit cue to track attention in this manner. Therefore, we observed a benefit of hand position on items currently being maintained in VSTM, which allows us to infer a cognitive benefit of body position as well, rather than a strictly perceptual benefit. Left Hand Reaction Time (ms) Right Hand Mean reaction time for left hand in Experiment 2. Test Near Hand Test Near Anchor No Hand Control