The Impact of Working Memory Limitations on the Design Process during Conceptualization

This paper presents the cognitive activity differences of six expert architects when they design in blindfolded (BF) and sketching (SK) conditions. It was observed that all participants’ overall cognitive activity and perceptual activity in the BF sessions dropped below their activity in the SK sessions, approximately after 20 minutes during the timeline of their design activity. This drop in performance can be explained by higher cognitive demands under BF conditions. In the absence of sketching, architects may experience an overload of visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM). We also tested whether this may have an impact on the linking of their design ideas. We previously reported that the intensity and the information content (entropy) of the idea development were not influenced by VSWM load. The reach of idea links was found to be smaller in the second half of the BF design sessions. Working memory limitations had an impact only on the reach of idea links. We discuss whether these differences are dependent on working memory limitations or idea saturation during conceptual designing.