Process dynamics of serial biases in visual perception and working memory processes.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Perception and Working Memory

Background:

• Serial dependence, a bias toward prior stimuli, has unclear processing origins, with theories pointing to perception or working memory (WM).
• Understanding the locus of serial dependence is crucial for models of decision-making and memory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the temporal and process-specific dynamics of serial biases across perception and WM.
• To differentiate the roles of perceptual and mnemonic processes in shaping serial dependence.

Main Methods:

• Behavioral experiments involving immediate perceptual reports and delayed WM recall tasks.
• Analysis of behavioral responses and fine-grained mouse trajectories.
• Utilized a color-matching task with varying report timings (immediate, consolidation, retrieval).

Main Results:

• Immediate perceptual reports showed repulsive biases.
• Working memory consolidation and retrieval reports exhibited moderate to strong attractive biases.
• Mouse trajectories revealed a repulsion-to-attraction transition during WM consolidation.

Conclusions:

• Findings support a mnemonic origin for positive serial dependence, challenging purely perceptual accounts.
• Perception and working memory independently contribute to the observed serial bias.
• Suggests an interaction between sensory adaptation and mnemonic processes in decision-making.