Li Chenyu, Frischkorn Gidon T, Oberauer Klaus
Department of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Cogn Psychol. 2025 Jan;156:101702. doi: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2024.101702. Epub 2024 Dec 20.
Working memory updating is the process that replaces outdated content in working memory by new content. This requires removing outdated information and encoding new information. It is still unclear whether removal and encoding run sequentially or simultaneously. We explored this question in two experiments investigating the time course of removal and encoding and their consequences for the functioning of working memory. The updating task we used involved three phases: the initial encoding, the processing, and the retrieval phase. Across four conditions, we manipulated whether the processing phase involved encoding, removal, neither, or both (i.e., updating). In Experiment 1, processing time was self-paced, and we measured processing times in each condition. In Experiment 2, we measured accuracy as a function of available processing time. After the processing, participants were asked to recall the final item for each position in the retrieval phase. In combination, the results of the two experiments show that the time required for updating was shorter than the sum of encoding and removal time. Moreover, it was nearly the same as the time taken for either the encoding or removal process, indicating that encoding and removal are concurrent processes during updating. Additionally, we analyzed the proportion of correct responses and of different error types with a memory measurement model to investigate the effects of encoding and removal for information held in working memory. The analysis revealed that removal involves unbinding the outdated information from its context. However, despite the weakened bindings of information to its initial context, the outdated information still remains activated in working memory. Other information held in working memory benefitted little from removal of outdated information.
工作记忆更新是一个通过新内容替换工作记忆中过时内容的过程。这需要移除过时信息并编码新信息。目前尚不清楚移除和编码是顺序进行还是同时进行。我们在两项实验中探讨了这个问题，研究了移除和编码的时间进程及其对工作记忆功能的影响。我们使用的更新任务包括三个阶段：初始编码、处理和检索阶段。在四种条件下，我们操纵处理阶段是涉及编码、移除、两者都不涉及还是两者都涉及（即更新）。在实验1中，处理时间由参与者自行控制，我们测量了每种条件下的处理时间。在实验2中，我们测量了作为可用处理时间函数的准确性。在处理之后，要求参与者在检索阶段回忆每个位置的最后一项。综合来看，两项实验的结果表明，更新所需的时间比编码和移除时间之和要短。此外，它几乎与编码或移除过程所花费的时间相同，这表明编码和移除在更新过程中是并发过程。此外，我们使用记忆测量模型分析了正确反应和不同错误类型的比例，以研究编码和移除对工作记忆中所存储信息的影响。分析表明，移除涉及将过时信息与其上下文解绑。然而，尽管信息与其初始上下文的绑定减弱，但过时信息在工作记忆中仍然保持激活状态。工作记忆中存储的其他信息从移除过时信息中获益甚微。
