Separating memoranda in depth increases visual working memory performance
Separating memoranda in depth increases visual working memory performance
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DOI：
10.1167/19.1.4
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发表时间：
2019-01-01
影响因子：
1.8
通讯作者：
Serences, John T.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chunharas, Chaipat;Rademaker, Rosanne L.;Serences, John T.
视觉工作记忆是在感觉输入被移除后支持信息持续维护的机制。尽管视觉工作记忆的容量有限，但在二维显示器上间隔较远的备忘录更容易记住，这可能是因为在记忆编码、维护或检索过程中，视觉皮层的视网膜局部组织区域内的神经表征更加清晰。尽管深度信息对于指导与环境中物体的交互至关重要，但深度空间可分离性对记忆的影响尚不清楚。一方面，如果减少项目之间的干扰，深入分离备忘录可能会提高性能。然而，深度信息必须从二维视网膜图像间接推断，而对于视觉皮层如何表示深度知之甚少。因此，另一种可能性是深度分离并不能减弱项目间的干扰；它甚至可能会影响性能，因为注意力必须分散在更大的 3D 空间中。我们使用立体显示器测试了这些替代方案，同时参与者记住了二维平面或深度中近处或远处呈现的刺激的颜色。增加平面内和深度的分离都可以增强性能。此外，当备忘录被深度分离时，能够更好地利用立体深度线索的参与者表现出更大的好处，特别是对于大型存储器阵列。与 2D 环境中的情况一样，推断的 3D 环境结构中的空间分离可以提高记忆性能，这表明深度分离备忘录可能会通过利用皮质可分离资源来减少神经竞争。
Visual working memory is the mechanism supporting the continued maintenance of information after sensory inputs are removed. Although the capacity of visual working memory is limited, memoranda that are spaced farther apart on a 2-D display are easier to remember, potentially because neural representations are more distinct within retinotopically organized areas of visual cortex during memory encoding, maintenance, or retrieval. The impact on memory of spatial separability in depth is less clear, even though depth information is essential to guiding interactions with objects in the environment. On one account, separating memoranda in depth may facilitate performance if interference between items is reduced. However, depth information must be inferred indirectly from the 2-D retinal image, and less is known about how visual cortex represents depth. Thus, an alternative possibility is that separation in depth does not attenuate between-items interference; it may even impair performance, as attention must be distributed across a larger volume of 3-D space. We tested these alternatives using a stereo display while participants remembered the colors of stimuli presented either near or far in the 2-D plane or in depth. Increasing separation in-plane and in depth both enhanced performance. Furthermore, participants who were better able to utilize stereo depth cues showed larger benefits when memoranda were separated in depth, particularly for large memory arrays. The observation that spatial separation in the inferred 3-D structure of the environment improves memory performance, as is the case in 2-D environments, suggests that separating memoranda in depth might reduce neural competition by utilizing cortically separable resources.