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Published on: August 29, 2018
Working memory and target-related distractor effects on visual search.
Alex Bahrami Balani1, David Soto, Glyn W Humphreys
1Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England. a.b.balani@bham.ac.uk
Memory & Cognition
|December 16, 2010
Summary
Information in working memory (WM) and semantic relationships interfere with visual search. Task-irrelevant WM content and target templates compete separately for selection, impacting search performance.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Top-down effects significantly influence visual selection.
- Working memory (WM) and semantic relations are key factors in visual search.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how working memory (WM) content and semantic relationships between targets and distractors affect visual search.
- To determine the independent and combined effects of WM interference and semantic interference on visual selection.
Main Methods:
- Participants performed visual search tasks.
- The study manipulated information held in working memory (WM).
- Semantic relationships between targets and distractors were varied.
Main Results:
- Items in WM interfered with search for unrelated targets, demonstrating a generalized WM-based interference.
- Semantically related distractors, even if not in WM, also caused interference.
- The interference effects from WM and semantic relatedness combined additively.
Conclusions:
- Task-irrelevant information in WM and target templates compete distinctly for visual selection.
- Both WM content and semantic associations play crucial roles in top-down visual search modulation.
