Chidharom Matthieu, Zafarmand Mahsa, Carlisle Nancy B
Department of Psychology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 18015, USA.
J Cogn. 2024 Jul 16;7(1):55. doi: 10.5334/joc.380. eCollection 2024.
Visual working memory (VWM) plays an important role during visual search, with some theories suggesting an equivalence between working memory representations and guidance from attentional templates. However, recent work has shown that participants can also use 'negative templates', the foreknowledge of distractor-features stored in VWM, to guide attention away from distractors during visual search. These negative templates must also be represented in working memory, but the question remains whether the quality of the working memory representations underlying negative and positive templates are similar, in spite of their opposite impacts on attention. In this study, participants (N = 33) engaged in a visual search task for a shape-defined target after receiving a positive cue (target color), negative cue (distractor color) or neutral cue (non-informative). In 20% of the trials, a color-wheel probe was presented instead of a search array to measure the quality of the cue representation stored in VWM. Our results revealed that participants were more likely to guess in response to neutral cues than negative cues. Yet, the comparison between positive and negative cues showed no significant differences. However, we found no difference in memory precision for the three cue types. More interestingly, the more the VWM quality is boosted by the negative cue, the greater the ability to guide attention away from distractors. Such a pattern of results might map to recent evidence of between-individuals differences in utilization of negative cues. These findings highlight the distinction between attentional templates and simple maintenance in working memory.
视觉工作记忆（VWM）在视觉搜索过程中起着重要作用，一些理论认为工作记忆表征与注意力模板的引导作用相当。然而，最近的研究表明，参与者还可以使用“负性模板”，即存储在VWM中的干扰物特征的先验知识，在视觉搜索过程中将注意力从干扰物上引开。这些负性模板也必须在工作记忆中得到表征，但问题仍然存在：尽管负性模板和正性模板对注意力有相反的影响，但其背后的工作记忆表征质量是否相似。在本研究中，参与者（N = 33）在收到正性线索（目标颜色）、负性线索（干扰物颜色）或中性线索（无信息）后，对形状定义的目标进行视觉搜索任务。在20%的试验中，呈现一个色轮探针而不是搜索阵列，以测量存储在VWM中的线索表征质量。我们的结果显示，与负性线索相比，参与者对中性线索做出猜测的可能性更大。然而，正性线索和负性线索之间的比较没有显著差异。但是，我们发现三种线索类型在记忆精度上没有差异。更有趣的是，负性线索对VWM质量的提升越大，将注意力从干扰物上引开的能力就越强。这样的结果模式可能与最近关于个体在利用负性线索方面存在差异的证据相呼应。这些发现突出了注意力模板与工作记忆中简单维持之间的区别。
