VISUAL WORKING MEMORY IN VISUAL SEARCH TASKS

这项研究计划将解决视觉注意和视觉工作记忆在视觉搜索任务中如何相互作用这一基本问题。我们会问两个一般性的问题：(1)在视觉搜索过程中，当注意力被集中在一个项目上时，该项目的表征是否会自动转移到视觉工作记忆中？(2)目标的模板是否存储在视觉工作记忆中，将注意力偏向于与目标有共同特征的物体？实验将使用双重任务方法，受试者在视觉工作记忆中持有一组物体的同时执行视觉搜索任务。工作记忆和注意之间的交互作用在行为表现中主要有两个方面：(1)研究任务可能会干扰工作记忆中持有物体的任务；(2)当工作记忆被并发记忆任务填满时，搜索任务可能会受到损害。此外，在视觉搜索任务中，将使用电生理记录(事件相关电位)以毫秒级的分辨率跟踪注意力的聚焦。增加对注意力和工作记忆之间相互作用的了解，最终可能有助于我们理解这些过程的障碍，如注意力缺陷障碍。

This research proposal will address the fundamental issue of how visual attention and visual working memory interact in the context of visual search tasks. Two general questions will be asked: (1) When attention is focused onto an item during visual search, is a representation of that item automatically transferred into visual working memory? (2) Is a template of the target stored in visual working memory in bias attention toward objects that share features with the target? The experiments will use a dual-task methodology in which subjects perform a visual search task while holding a set of objects in visual working memory. Interactions between working memory and attention will be observed in behavioral performance in two main ways: (1) The research task may interfere with the task of holding objects in working memory; (2) The search task may be impaired when working memory is filled by the concurrent memory task. In addition, electrophysiological recordings (event-related potentials) will be used to track the focusing of attention with millisecond resolution during the visual search task. An increased understanding of interactions between attention and working memory may ultimately help us understand disorders of these processes such as attention deficit disorder.