Li Ziyuan, Liu Qiang
Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China.
Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610000, China.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2023 Jul 31;13(8):636. doi: 10.3390/bs13080636.
Visual working memory includes both active, recallable items and latent items not directly available for recall. During the online manipulation of active working memory, latent items gain robust retention. According to the dissociation account, active and passive memories exist in independent states, both of which take up their own cognitive resources. However, it is unclear whether dissociation is a universal phenomenon during memory maintenance. Given that memory information is retained as a binding of identity and location, the spatial proximity of memory items might shield the dissociation property. To test this, we adopted a retro-cue memory task where the cued and uncued items were separated in the active and latent states. In Experiment 1, the memory items were presented at a relatively large spatial distance. The results supported the dissociation account for well-separated items. However, Experiment 2 rejected the dissociation for closer-in items, possibly because items in visual working memory were spatially labeled. These findings suggest that while memory maintenance generally conforms to the dissociation account, the spatial configuration of memory items can affect the dissociation property between the active and latent neural states in visual working memory.
视觉工作记忆既包括活跃的、可回忆的项目，也包括不能直接用于回忆的潜在项目。在对活跃工作记忆进行在线操作期间，潜在项目能得到稳固的保留。根据分离理论，活跃记忆和被动记忆处于独立状态，两者都占用各自的认知资源。然而，目前尚不清楚在记忆维持过程中分离是否是一种普遍现象。鉴于记忆信息是以身份和位置的绑定形式保留的，记忆项目的空间接近性可能会掩盖分离特性。为了验证这一点，我们采用了一种逆向线索记忆任务，其中线索化和未线索化的项目在活跃状态和潜在状态下是分开的。在实验1中，记忆项目以相对较大的空间距离呈现。结果支持了对分离项目的分离理论。然而，实验2否定了对距离较近项目的分离理论，这可能是因为视觉工作记忆中的项目在空间上有标记。这些发现表明，虽然记忆维持通常符合分离理论，但记忆项目的空间配置会影响视觉工作记忆中活跃和潜在神经状态之间的分离特性。
