The contents of visual working memory reduce uncertainty during visual search

Joshua D Cosman; Shaun P Vecera

doi:10.3758/s13414-011-0093-y

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The contents of visual working memory reduce uncertainty during visual search

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

The contents of visual working memory reduce uncertainty during visual search

Joshua D Cosman and Shaun P Vecera

Attention, perception & psychophysics, Vol.73(4), pp.996-1002

05/2011

DOI: 10.3758/s13414-011-0093-y

PMID: 21287315

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Abstract

Information held in visual working memory (VWM) influences the allocation of attention during visual search, with targets matching the contents of VWM receiving processing benefits over those that do not. Such an effect could arise from multiple mechanisms: First, it is possible that the contents of working memory enhance the perceptual representation of the target. Alternatively, it is possible that when a target is presented among distractor items, the contents of working memory operate postperceptually to reduce uncertainty about the location of the target. In both cases, a match between the contents of VWM and the target should lead to facilitated processing. However, each effect makes distinct predictions regarding set-size manipulations; whereas perceptual enhancement accounts predict processing benefits regardless of set size, uncertainty reduction accounts predict benefits only with set sizes larger than 1, when there is uncertainty regarding the target location. In the present study, in which briefly presented, masked targets were presented in isolation, there was a negligible effect of the information held in VWM on target discrimination. However, in displays containing multiple masked items, information held in VWM strongly affected target discrimination. These results argue that working memory representations act at a postperceptual level to reduce uncertainty during visual search.

Cues

Psychomotor Performance

Uncertainty

Humans

Reaction Time

Functional Laterality

Orientation

Psychophysics

Association

Perceptual Masking

Discrimination (Psychology)

Space Perception

Pattern Recognition, Visual

Memory, Short-Term

Color Perception

Details

Title: Subtitle: The contents of visual working memory reduce uncertainty during visual search
Creators: Joshua D Cosman - Department of Neuroscience, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242-1407, USA. joshua-cosman@uiowa.edu
Shaun P Vecera
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Attention, perception & psychophysics, Vol.73(4), pp.996-1002
DOI: 10.3758/s13414-011-0093-y
PMID: 21287315
NLM abbreviation: Atten Percept Psychophys
ISSN: 1943-3921
eISSN: 1943-393X
Publisher: United States
Language: English
Date published: 05/2011
Academic Unit: Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
Record Identifier: 9984002481902771

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