Makovski Tal, Sussman Rachel, Jiang Yuhong V
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2008 Mar;34(2):369-80. doi: 10.1037/0278-7393.34.2.369.
Given a changing visual environment, and the limited capacity of visual working memory (VWM), the contents of VWM must be in constant flux. Using a change detection task, the authors show that VWM is subject to obligatory updating in the face of new information. Change detection performance is enhanced when the item that may change is retrospectively cued 1 s after memory encoding and 0.5 s before testing. The retro-cue benefit cannot be explained by memory decay or by a reduction in interference from other items held in VWM. Rather, orienting attention to a single memory item makes VWM more resistant to interference from the test probe. The authors conclude that the content of VWM is volatile unless it receives focused attention, and that the standard change detection task underestimates VWM capacity.
鉴于视觉环境不断变化，且视觉工作记忆（VWM）的容量有限，VWM的内容必须不断变化。作者通过一项变化检测任务表明，面对新信息时，VWM会进行强制性更新。当可能发生变化的项目在记忆编码后1秒和测试前0.5秒被回溯提示时，变化检测性能会增强。回溯提示的益处无法用记忆衰退或VWM中其他项目干扰的减少来解释。相反，将注意力定向到单个记忆项目会使VWM对测试探针的干扰更具抵抗力。作者得出结论，除非受到集中关注，否则VWM的内容是不稳定的，并且标准的变化检测任务低估了VWM的容量。
