The Influence of Active Removal from Working Memory on Serial Dependence

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Flexible control of working memory (WM) involves removing irrelevant information.
• Mechanisms for information removal include passive attention withdrawal and active removal.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if actively removing information from WM induces a repulsive bias.
• To test if this repulsive bias is indicative of adaptation-like changes in perceptual circuitry.

Main Methods:

• A preliminary study paired multi-item WM tasks with single-item delayed recall.
• Participants identified one of two memoranda as irrelevant.
• Stimulus overlap between the irrelevant memory item (IMI) and a subsequent item manipulated active removal versus attention withdrawal.

Main Results:

• In the no-overlap condition, the IMI exerted an attractive bias, consistent with passive attention withdrawal.
• In the overlap condition, an unexpected repulsive bias was observed, suggesting active removal.
• A subsequent lab-based experiment confirmed a repulsive bias in the overlap condition.

Conclusions:

• Active removal of information from WM, triggered by stimulus overlap, induces a repulsive bias.
• This repulsive bias provides evidence for adaptation-like mechanisms in perceptual circuitry during active WM updating.