Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
PLoS One. 2012;7(12):e50962. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0050962. Epub 2012 Dec 28.
The current study examined selective encoding in visual working memory by systematically investigating interference from task-irrelevant features. The stimuli were objects defined by three features (color, shape, and location), and during a delay period, any of the features could switch between two objects. Additionally, single- and whole-probe trials were randomized within experimental blocks to investigate effects of memory retrieval. A series of relevant-feature switch detection tasks, where one feature was task-irrelevant, showed that interference from the task-irrelevant feature was only observed in the color-shape task, suggesting that color and shape information could be successfully filtered out, but location information could not, even when location was a task-irrelevant feature. Therefore, although location information is added to object representations independent of task demands in a relatively automatic manner, other features (e.g., color, shape) can be flexibly added to object representations.
当前的研究通过系统地考察来自任务无关特征的干扰，来检验视觉工作记忆中的选择性编码。刺激物由三个特征（颜色、形状和位置）定义，在延迟期间，任何特征都可以在两个物体之间切换。此外，在实验块内随机分配单探针和全探针试验，以研究记忆检索的影响。在一系列相关特征切换检测任务中，一个特征是任务无关的，结果表明，只有在颜色-形状任务中才会观察到来自任务无关特征的干扰，这表明可以成功地过滤掉颜色和形状信息，但不能过滤掉位置信息，即使位置是任务无关的特征。因此，尽管位置信息以相对自动的方式独立于任务需求添加到物体表示中，但其他特征（例如颜色、形状）可以灵活地添加到物体表示中。
