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A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions
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Published on: July 16, 2015

Does high memory load kick task-irrelevant information out of visual working memory?

Jun Yin1, Jifan Zhou, Haokui Xu

  • 1Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Xixi Campus, Hang Zhou 310028, People's Republic of China.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|January 5, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Even with high memory demands, irrelevant visual features are stored in visual working memory (VWM). Changes to these ignored details significantly impact performance, regardless of VWM load.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Visual Perception

Background:

  • Visual working memory (VWM) has a limited capacity, necessitating efficient information selection mechanisms.
  • Previous research indicated that irrelevant simple features are processed under low VWM load.
  • The processing of irrelevant features under high VWM load remained largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether irrelevant simple features are stored in VWM under high load conditions.
  • To examine the 'irrelevant-change distracting effect' caused by changes in stored irrelevant features.
  • To determine if memory load influences the storage of irrelevant information in VWM.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized simple colored shapes as stimuli, with color as the target feature.
  • Employed an 'irrelevant-change distracting effect' paradigm.
  • Conducted two experiments using whole-probe and partial-probe methods with six objects under high VWM load.

Main Results:

  • A change in an irrelevant shape feature significantly distracted performance in Experiment 1 (whole-probe method).
  • The irrelevant-change distracting effect was replicated in Experiment 2 (partial-probe method).
  • These findings indicate that irrelevant features are stored in VWM irrespective of the memory load.

Conclusions:

  • Irrelevant simple features are stored in visual working memory even when the memory load is high.
  • The presence of an 'irrelevant-change distracting effect' suggests that VWM does not completely filter out non-target information.
  • These results challenge the notion of strict capacity limits for irrelevant information processing in VWM.