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Published on: November 14, 2018
Memory recall errors reflect interacting sensory and mnemonic representations
Holly Kular1, John T Serences2,3
1Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0109, USA. hkular@ucsd.edu.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|August 10, 2026
Summary
Visual working memory (WM) can be interfered with by new visual information. This study shows that memory errors occur when new stimuli share features with stored information, suggesting overlapping representations.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
- Human Memory
Background:
- Visual working memory (WM) maintains information no longer present.
- Debate exists on whether WM uses abstract or sensory representations.
- Sensory representations may enhance precision but risk interference.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if memory errors in visual working memory (WM) result from interacting sensory and mnemonic representations.
- To test whether new sensory inputs interfere with existing memories.
- To determine the nature of representations supporting WM precision.
Main Methods:
- An orientation recall task was employed.
- Noise was added to memoranda (remembered stimuli).
- Feature-neutral and feature-relevant distractors were presented.
Main Results:
- Increased recall errors were observed with added stimulus noise and feature-neutral distractors.
- Distractors sharing features with memoranda caused attractive biases, pulling recall towards the distractor's orientation.
- The strength of this bias was influenced by stimulus noise and distractor relevance.
Conclusions:
- Visual working memory (WM) is susceptible to feature-specific interference.
- Results suggest a partial overlap between representations of currently processed stimuli and stored memories.
- Findings support models where sensory representations are sometimes recruited for WM maintenance.
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