Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Sci Rep. 2019 Jan 29;9(1):892. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-37596-2.
Simple visual items and complex real-world objects are stored into visual working memory as a collection of independent features, not as whole or integrated objects. Storing faces into memory might differ, however, since previous studies have reported perceptual and memory advantage for whole faces compared to other objects. We investigated whether facial features can be integrated in a statistically optimal fashion and whether memory maintenance disrupts this integration. The observers adjusted a probe - either a whole face or isolated features (eyes or mouth region) - to match the identity of a target while viewing both stimuli simultaneously or after a 1.5 second retention period. Precision was better for the whole face compared to the isolated features. Perceptual precision was higher than memory precision, as expected, and memory precision further declined as the number of memorized items was increased from one to four. Interestingly, the whole-face precision was better predicted by models assuming injection of memory noise followed by integration of features than by models assuming integration of features followed by the memory noise. The results suggest equally weighted or optimal integration of facial features and indicate that feature information is preserved in visual working memory while remembering faces.
简单的视觉项目和复杂的真实物体被存储在视觉工作记忆中，作为独立特征的集合，而不是作为整体或集成的物体。然而，存储面部可能会有所不同，因为之前的研究报告称，与其他物体相比，整体面部具有感知和记忆优势。我们研究了面部特征是否可以以统计上最优的方式进行整合，以及记忆维持是否会破坏这种整合。观察者在同时查看两个刺激或在 1.5 秒的保留期后，调整一个探针 - 要么是整个面部，要么是孤立的特征（眼睛或嘴部区域） - 以匹配目标的身份。与孤立的特征相比，整个面部的精度更好。如预期的那样，感知精度高于记忆精度，并且随着从一个增加到四个记忆项目的数量增加，记忆精度进一步下降。有趣的是，假设在整合特征之前注入记忆噪声的模型比假设在整合特征之后注入记忆噪声的模型更好地预测了整个面部的精度。结果表明，面部特征的加权相等或最佳整合，并表明在记忆面部时，特征信息在视觉工作记忆中得到保留。
