Bae Gi-Yeul, Luck Steven J
Center for Mind & Brain and Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, 267 Cousteau Pl, Davis, CA, 95618, USA.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2017 Nov;79(8):2376-2395. doi: 10.3758/s13414-017-1404-8.
We investigated whether the representations of different objects are maintained independently in working memory or interact with each other. Observers were shown two sequentially presented orientations and required to reproduce each orientation after a delay. The sequential presentation minimized perceptual interactions so that we could isolate interactions between memory representations per se. We found that similar orientations were repelled from each other whereas dissimilar orientations were attracted to each other. In addition, when one of the items was given greater attentional priority by means of a cue, the representation of the high-priority item was not influenced very much by the orientation of the low-priority item, but the representation of the low-priority item was strongly influenced by the orientation of the high-priority item. This indicates that attention modulates the interactions between working memory representations. In addition, errors in the reported orientations of the two objects were positively correlated under some conditions, suggesting that representations of distinct objects may become grouped together in memory. Together, these results demonstrate that working-memory representations are not independent but instead interact with each other in a manner that depends on attentional priority.
我们研究了不同物体的表征在工作记忆中是独立保持的还是相互作用的。向观察者展示两个相继呈现的方向，并要求他们在延迟后再现每个方向。相继呈现使感知交互最小化，以便我们能够分离记忆表征本身之间的交互。我们发现相似的方向相互排斥，而不同的方向相互吸引。此外，当通过线索给予其中一个项目更高的注意力优先级时，高优先级项目的表征受低优先级项目方向的影响不大，但低优先级项目的表征受高优先级项目方向的强烈影响。这表明注意力调节工作记忆表征之间的交互。此外，在某些条件下，两个物体报告方向的错误呈正相关，这表明不同物体的表征可能在记忆中聚集在一起。总之，这些结果表明工作记忆表征不是独立的，而是以一种取决于注意力优先级的方式相互作用。
