Visual Working Memory Supports the Inhibition of Previously Processed Information: Evidence From Preview Search
Visual Working Memory Supports the Inhibition of Previously Processed Information: Evidence From Preview Search
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DOI：
10.1037/a0025707
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发表时间：
2012-06-01
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Pratt, Jay
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Al-Aidroos, Naseem;Emrich, Stephen M.;Pratt, Jay
在四个实验中，我们评估了视觉工作记忆(VWM)是否保留了之前处理过的视觉信息的记录，允许旧信息被抑制，新信息被优先处理。具体地说，我们评估了VWM是否有助于在预览搜索中抑制(即视觉标记)预览干扰项。我们通过测试三个预测来评估这一建议。首先，实验1和实验2表明，当被预览干扰物的数量低于VWM容量时，预览抑制效果比VWM容量大时更有效；这种效果只有在预览集大小较小的情况下才能观察到(实验2A)，并且允许观察者自由移动眼睛(实验213)。第二，实验3表明，当被抑制干扰物的数量被量化时，预览效应的大小在不同的搜索难度下是稳定的。第三，实验4证明了预瞄抑制的个体差异与视觉工作记忆能力的个体差异相关。这些发现提供了一致的证据，表明VWM支持对预视干扰的抑制。更广泛地说，这些发现展示了VWM如何有助于人类视觉信息处理的效率-VWM通过抑制旧信息被重新选择来引起注意来优先处理新信息。
In four experiments we assessed whether visual working memory (VWM) maintains a record of previously processed visual information, allowing old information to be inhibited, and new information to be prioritized. Specifically, we evaluated whether VWM contributes to the inhibition (i.e., visual marking) of previewed distractors in a preview search. We evaluated this proposal by testing three predictions. First, Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that preview inhibition is more effective when the number of previewed distractors is below VWM capacity than above; an effect that can only be observed at small preview set sizes (Experiment 2A) and when observers are allowed to move their eyes freely (Experiment 213). Second, Experiment 3 shows that, when quantified as the number of inhibited distractors, the magnitude of the preview effect is stable across different search difficulties. Third, Experiment 4 demonstrates that individual differences in preview inhibition are correlated with individual differences in VWM capacity. These findings provide converging evidence that VWM supports the inhibition of previewed distractors. More generally, these findings demonstrate how VWM contributes to the efficiency of human visual information processing-VWM prioritizes new information by inhibiting old information from being reselected for attention.