Visual Search May Not Require Target Representation in Working Memory or Long-Term Memory

We spend a lot of time searching for things. If we know what we are looking for in advance, a memory representation of the target will be created to guide search. But if the identity of the search target is revealed simultaneously with the presentation of the search array, is a similar memory representation formed? In the present study, 96 observers determined whether a central target was present in a peripheral search array. The results revealed that as long as the central target remained available for inspection (even if only in iconic memory), observers reinspected it after each distractor was checked, apparently forgoing consolidation of the target into working memory. The present findings challenged the assumption that evaluating items in a search array must involve comparison with a template in working memory.

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Is Long-Term Memory Used in a Visuo-Spatial Change-Detection Paradigm?

10.31234/osf.io/vb7te ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin Goecke ◽

Klaus Oberauer

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Change Detection ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Memory Task ◽

Repetition Effect ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Memory Representation ◽

Term Memory ◽

Hebb Repetition Effect

In tests of working memory with verbal or spatial materials repeating the same memory sets across trials leads to improved memory performance. This well-established “Hebb repetition effect” could not be shown for visual materials. This absence of the Hebb effect can be explained in two ways: Either persons fail to acquire a long-term memory representation of the repeated memory sets, or they acquire such long-term memory representations, but fail to use them during the working memory task. In two experiments, (N1 = 18 and N2 = 30), we aimed to decide between these two possibilities by manipulating the long-term memory knowledge of some of the memory sets used in a change-detection task. Before the change-detection test, participants learned three arrays of colors to criterion. The subsequent change-detection test contained both previously learned and new color arrays. Change detection performance was better on previously learned compared to new arrays, showing that long-term memory is used in change detection.

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The role of working memory and long-term memory in visual search

Visual Cognition ◽

10.1080/13506280500197397 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 14 (4-8) ◽

pp. 808-830 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Geoffrey F. Woodman ◽

Marvin M. Chun

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Search ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Term Memory

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Is long-term memory used in a visuo-spatial change-detection paradigm?

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review ◽

10.3758/s13423-021-01951-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin Goecke ◽

Klaus Oberauer

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Change Detection ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Memory Task ◽

Repetition Effect ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Memory Representation ◽

Term Memory ◽

Hebb Repetition Effect

AbstractIn tests of working memory with verbal or spatial materials, repeating the same memory sets across trials leads to improved memory performance. This well-established “Hebb repetition effect” could not be shown for visual materials in previous research. The absence of the Hebb effect can be explained in two ways: Either persons fail to acquire a long-term memory representation of the repeated memory sets, or they acquire such long-term memory representations, but fail to use them during the working memory task. In two experiments (N1 = 18 and N2 = 30), we aimed to decide between these two possibilities by manipulating the long-term memory knowledge of some of the memory sets used in a change-detection task. Before the change-detection test, participants learned three arrays of colors to criterion. The subsequent change-detection test contained both previously learned and new color arrays. Change detection performance was better on previously learned compared with new arrays, showing that long-term memory is used in change detection.

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The Control of Single-color and Multiple-color Visual Search by Attentional Templates in Working Memory and in Long-term Memory

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01020 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 28 (12) ◽

pp. 1947-1963 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Anna Grubert ◽

Nancy B. Carlisle ◽

Martin Eimer

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Search ◽

Memory Load ◽

Target Selection ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Term Memory ◽

Attentional Guidance ◽

Color Search ◽

Constant Color

The question whether target selection in visual search can be effectively controlled by simultaneous attentional templates for multiple features is still under dispute. We investigated whether multiple-color attentional guidance is possible when target colors remain constant and can thus be represented in long-term memory but not when they change frequently and have to be held in working memory. Participants searched for one, two, or three possible target colors that were specified by cue displays at the start of each trial. In constant-color blocks, the same colors remained task-relevant throughout. In variable-color blocks, target colors changed between trials. The contralateral delay activity (CDA) to cue displays increased in amplitude as a function of color memory load in variable-color blocks, which indicates that cued target colors were held in working memory. In constant-color blocks, the CDA was much smaller, suggesting that color representations were primarily stored in long-term memory. N2pc components to targets were measured as a marker of attentional target selection. Target N2pcs were attenuated and delayed during multiple-color search, demonstrating less efficient attentional deployment to color-defined target objects relative to single-color search. Importantly, these costs were the same in constant-color and variable-color blocks. These results demonstrate that attentional guidance by multiple-feature as compared with single-feature templates is less efficient both when target features remain constant and can be represented in long-term memory and when they change across trials and therefore have to be maintained in working memory.

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Consciousness and Memory

The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Consciousness ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198749677.013.24 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 519-537

Author(s):

Christopher S. Hill

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Iconic Memory ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Term Memory ◽

The Relationship

This chapter is concerned with relationships between three forms of consciousness and three types of memory. The three forms of consciousness are introspective consciousnessaccess consciousnessand phenomenal consciousness.There are three types of memory that are arguably connected, either directly or indirectly, with one or more of the aforementioned forms of consciousness—long-term memory, working memory, and iconic memory. The chapter will consider the relationship between each type of consciousness and each type of memory.

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Conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) supports core claims of Christiansen and Chater

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x15000928 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 39 ◽

Author(s):

Mary C. Potter

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Rapid Serial Visual Presentation ◽

Language Comprehension ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Visual Presentation ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Short Term ◽

Term Memory ◽

Use Of Knowledge

AbstractRapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of words or pictured scenes provides evidence for a large-capacity conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) that momentarily provides rich associated material from long-term memory, permitting rapid chunking (Potter 1993; 2009; 2012). In perception of scenes as well as language comprehension, we make use of knowledge that briefly exceeds the supposed limits of working memory.

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Visual Search Facilitation in Repeated Displays Depends on Visuospatial Working Memory

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000125 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 59 (1) ◽

pp. 47-54 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Angela A. Manginelli ◽

Franziska Geringswald ◽

Stefan Pollmann

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Search ◽

Control Experiment ◽

Memory Load ◽

Contextual Cueing ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Visuospatial Working Memory ◽

Working Memory Load ◽

Memory Resources

When distractor configurations are repeated over time, visual search becomes more efficient, even if participants are unaware of the repetition. This contextual cueing is a form of incidental, implicit learning. One might therefore expect that contextual cueing does not (or only minimally) rely on working memory resources. This, however, is debated in the literature. We investigated contextual cueing under either a visuospatial or a nonspatial (color) visual working memory load. We found that contextual cueing was disrupted by the concurrent visuospatial, but not by the color working memory load. A control experiment ruled out that unspecific attentional factors of the dual-task situation disrupted contextual cueing. Visuospatial working memory may be needed to match current display items with long-term memory traces of previously learned displays.

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