Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
PLoS One. 2023 Feb 9;18(2):e0281445. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281445. eCollection 2023.
When memorizing multiple objects, humans process them in relation to each other, proposing a configuration benefit. Shifts in overt visual attention through eye movements might influence the processing of spatial configurations. Whereas some research suggests that overt visual attention aids the processing of spatial representations, other research suggests a snapshot-like processing of spatial configurations, thus likely not relying on eye movements. In the first experiment, we focused on the comparison between an enforced fixation and a free view condition regarding configurational effects. Participants encoded objects' locations and were asked for changes at retrieval. One object was displaced in half of the trials and was either accompanied by a configuration or was displayed alone. In the second experiment, we expanded this idea by enforcing fixation during different task phases, namely encoding, maintenance and retrieval. We investigated if a fixed gaze during one specific phase drives the influence of eye movements when processing spatial configurations. We observed reliable configuration benefits for the free view conditions. Whereas a fixed gaze throughout the whole trial reduced the effect, enforced fixations during the task phases did not break the configuration benefit. Our findings suggest that whereas the processing of spatial configurations in memory is supported by the ability of performing shifts of overt visual attention, configurational processing does not rely on these shifts occurring throughout the task. Our results indicate a reciprocal relationship of visuospatial working memory and eye movements.
当记忆多个物体时，人类会将它们相互关联，提出一种配置优势。通过眼动的明显视觉注意力转移可能会影响空间配置的处理。虽然一些研究表明明显的视觉注意力有助于空间表示的处理，但其他研究表明空间配置的快照式处理，因此可能不依赖于眼动。在第一个实验中，我们专注于强制固定和自由观看条件之间的配置效应比较。参与者在编码时记住物体的位置，并在检索时询问是否发生了变化。在一半的试验中，一个物体被移位，并且要么伴有配置，要么单独显示。在第二个实验中，我们通过在不同的任务阶段（即编码、保持和检索）强制固定来扩展这个想法。我们调查了在处理空间配置时，在特定阶段固定注视是否会驱动眼动的影响。我们观察到自由观看条件下存在可靠的配置优势。而在整个试验过程中固定注视会减少这种效果，但在任务阶段强制固定注视并不能打破配置优势。我们的发现表明，尽管记忆中空间配置的处理受到执行明显视觉注意力转移能力的支持，但配置处理并不依赖于这些转移在整个任务中发生。我们的结果表明，视空间工作记忆和眼动之间存在相互关系。
