EXPRESS: Object-based Encoding in Visual Working Memory: A Critical Revisit

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110525
Author(s):  
Quan Gu ◽  
Alessandro Dai ◽  
Tian Ye ◽  
Bo Huang ◽  
Xiqian Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Perception ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Irrelevant Feature ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Feature Dimension ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Visual working memory (VWM) is responsible for the temporal retention and manipulation of visual information. It has been suggested that VWM employs an object-based encoding (OBE) manner to extract highly-discriminable information from visual perception: Whenever one feature dimension of the objects is selected for entry into VWM, the other task-irrelevant highly-discriminable dimension is also extracted into VWM involuntarily. However, the task-irrelevant feature in OBE studies might reflect a high capacity fragile VWM trace (FVWM for short) that stores maskable sensory representations. To directly compare the VWM storage hypothesis and the FVWM storage hypothesis, we used a unique characteristic of FVWM that the representations in FVWM could be erased by backward masks presented at the original locations of the memory array. We required participants to memorize the orientations of three colored bars while ignoring their colors, and presented backward masks during the VWM maintenance interval. In four experiments, we consistently observed that the OBE occurs regardless of the presentation of the backward masks, except when even the task-relevant features in VWM were significantly interrupted by immediate backward masks, suggesting that the task-irrelevant features of objects are stored in VWM rather than in FVWM.

EXPRESS: Automatically binding relevant and irrelevant features in visual working memory

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110539
Author(s):  
Chenxiao Zhao ◽  
Xinyu Li ◽  
Michel Failing ◽  
Benchi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Storage Space ◽  
Memory Enhancement ◽  
Irrelevant Feature ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Task Irrelevant

It is generally assumed that, in order to save storage space, features are stored as integrated objects in visual working memory (VWM). Although such an object-based account does not always hold because features can be processed in parallel, a previous study has shown that different features can be automatically bound with their locations (task-irrelevant feature) into an integrated unit, resulting in improved memory performance (Wang, Cao, Theeuwes, Olivers, & Wang, 2016). The present study was designed to further explore this phenomenon by investigating whether other features, that are not spatial in origin, can act as the binding cue to form such automatical binding. To test this, we used three different features as binding cues (i.e., color, spatial frequency, and shape) over multiple separate experiments. The results consistently showed that when two features shared the same binding cue, memory performance was better relative to when each of those features had their own binding cue. We conclude, that any task-irrelevant feature can act as a binding cue to automatically bind with task-relevant features even across different objects, resulting in memory enhancement.

scholarly journals Object-based selection in visual working memory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yin-ting Lin ◽  
Garry Kong ◽  
Daryl Fougnie
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Distance ◽  
Object Selection ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Memory Experiment ◽  
Object Feature ◽  
Feature Dimension ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Attentional Mechanisms

AbstractAttentional mechanisms in perception can operate over locations, features, or objects. However, people direct attention not only towards information in the external world, but also to information maintained in working memory. To what extent do perception and memory draw on similar selection properties? Here we examined whether principles of object-based attention can also hold true in visual working memory. Experiment 1 examined whether object structure guides selection independently of spatial distance. In a memory updating task, participants encoded two rectangular bars with colored ends before updating two colors during maintenance. Memory updates were faster for two equidistant colors on the same object than on different objects. Experiment 2 examined whether selection of a single object feature spreads to other features within the same object. Participants memorized two sequentially presented Gabors, and a retro-cue indicated which object and feature dimension (color or orientation) would be most relevant to the memory test. We found stronger effects of object selection than feature selection: accuracy was higher for the uncued feature in the same object than the cued feature in the other object. Together these findings demonstrate effects of object-based attention on visual working memory, at least when object-based representations are encouraged, and suggest shared attentional mechanisms across perception and memory.

Visual working memory modulates the temporal resolution of visual perception

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (11) ◽  
pp. 1719-1728
Author(s):  
Yi Pan
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Perception ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Temporal Resolution ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Target Stimulus ◽  
Gap Detection ◽  
Visual Priming ◽  
Sample Shape ◽  
Stimulus Features

The present study examined how visual working memory affects temporal resolution of visual stimuli that match the memorised nontemporal information about stimulus features (e.g., shapes). The results show that active maintenance of a sample shape in visual working memory impaired the concurrent detection of a sufficiently brief temporal gap within a matching visual target stimulus. The impairment of temporal gap detection was not likely due to the mechanism of visual priming from the presentation of the sample shape, because there was no evidence for priming effects when the sample was only passively viewed without working memory demands or when the sample was initially encoded into memory but did not need to be actively maintained in mind by the time the target stimulus appeared. These findings demonstrate that visual working memory can lower the temporal resolution of visual perception and thereby impair performance in the temporal gap detection task that requires fine temporal segregation of visual information, and they suggest the existence of a previously unknown downside to the interplay between working memory and visual perception.

scholarly journals Reprioritization of Features of Multidimensional Objects Stored in Visual Working Memory

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (12) ◽  
pp. 1773-1785 ◽  
Author(s):  
Young Eun Park ◽  
Jocelyn L. Sy ◽  
Sang Wook Hong ◽  
Frank Tong
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Complete Loss ◽  
Object Representations ◽  
Maintenance Period ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Multidimensional Objects ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Memory Resources

A prevalent view of visual working memory (VWM) is that visual information is actively maintained in the form of perceptually integrated objects. Such reliance on object-based representations would predict that after an object is fully encoded into VWM, all features of that object would need to be maintained as a coherent unit. Here, we evaluated this idea by testing whether memory resources can be redeployed to a specific feature of an object already stored in VWM. We found that observers can utilize a retrospective cue presented during the maintenance period to attenuate both the gradual deterioration and complete loss of memory for a cued feature over time, but at the cost of accelerated loss of information regarding the uncued feature. Our findings demonstrate that object representations held within VWM can be decomposed into individual features and that having to retain additional features imposes greater demands on active maintenance processes.

scholarly journals Different features are stored independently in visual working memory but mediated by object-based representations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri Markov ◽  
Natalia Tiurina ◽  
Igor Utochkin
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Set Size ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
Feature Dimension ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Recall Probability ◽  
Integrated Or

The question whether visual working memory (VWM) stores individual features or bound objects as basic units is actively debated. Evidence exists for both feature-based and object-based storages, as well as hierarchically organized representations maintaining both types of information at different levels. One argument for feature-based storage is that features belonging to different dimensions (e.g., color and orientations) can be stored without interference suggesting independent capacities for every dimension. Here, whether the lack of cross-dimensional interference reflects genuinely independent feature storages or mediated by common objects. In three experiments, participants remembered and recalled the colors and orientations of sets of objects. We independently manipulated set sizes within each feature dimension (making colors and orientations either identical or differing across objects). Critically, we assigned to-be-remembered colors and orientations either to same spatially integrated or to different spatially separated objects. We found that the precision and recall probability within each dimension was not affected be set size manipulations in a different dimension when the features belonged to integrated objects. However, manipulations with color set sizes did affect orientation memory when the features were separated. We conclude therefore that different feature dimensions can be encoded and stored independently but the advantage of the independent storages are mediated at the object-based level. This conclusion is consistent with the idea of hierarchically organized VWM.

scholarly journals Individual differences in working memory capacity are unrelated to the magnitudes of retrocue benefits

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaoxiong Ye ◽  
Qianru Xu ◽  
Xinyang Liu ◽  
Piia Astikainen ◽  
Yongjie Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Significant Positive Correlation ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Capacity Measurement ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Feature Dimension ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Internal Attention

AbstractPrevious studies have associated visual working memory (VWM) capacity with the use of internal attention. Retrocues, which direct internal attention to a particular object or feature dimension, can improve VWM performance (i.e., retrocue benefit, RCB). However, so far, no study has investigated the relationship between VWM capacity and the magnitudes of RCBs obtained from object-based and dimension-based retrocues. The present study explored individual differences in the magnitudes of object- and dimension-based RCBs and their relationships with VWM capacity. Participants completed a VWM capacity measurement, an object-based cue task, and a dimension-based cue task. We confirmed that both object- and dimension-based retrocues could improve VWM performance. We also found a significant positive correlation between the magnitudes of object- and dimension-based RCB indexes, suggesting a partly overlapping mechanism between the use of object- and dimension-based retrocues. However, our results provided no evidence for a correlation between VWM capacity and the magnitudes of the object- or dimension-based RCBs. Although inadequate attention control is usually assumed to be associated with VWM capacity, the results suggest that the internal attention mechanism for using retrocues in VWM retention is independent of VWM capacity.

scholarly journals Does perceptual grouping improve visuospatial working memory? Optimized processing or encoding bias

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Prieto ◽  
Vanesa Peinado ◽  
Julia Mayas
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Change Detection ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Detection Accuracy ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Gestalt Grouping ◽  
Color Similarity ◽  
Automatic Encoding ◽  
Change Detection Performance

AbstractVisual working memory has been defined as a system of limited capacity that enables the maintenance and manipulation of visual information. However, some perceptual features like Gestalt grouping could improve visual working memory effectiveness. In two different experiments, we aimed to explore how the presence of elements grouped by color similarity affects the change detection performance of both, grouped and non-grouped items. We combined a change detection task with a retrocue paradigm in which a six item array had to be remembered. An always valid, variable-delay retrocue appeared in some trials during the retention interval, either after 100 ms (iconic-trace period) or 1400 ms (working memory period), signaling the location of the probe. The results indicated that similarity grouping biased the information entered into the visual working memory, improving change detection accuracy only for previously grouped probes, but hindering change detection for non-grouped probes in certain conditions (Exp. 1). However, this bottom-up automatic encoding bias was overridden when participants were explicitly instructed to ignore grouped items as they were irrelevant for the task (Exp. 2).

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