1
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Chidharom M, Zafarmand M, Carlisle NB. Similar Quality of Visual Working Memory Representations between Negative and Positive Attentional Templates. J Cogn 2024; 7:55. [PMID: 39035075 PMCID: PMC11259102 DOI: 10.5334/joc.380] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2023] [Accepted: 06/22/2024] [Indexed: 07/23/2024] Open
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthieu Chidharom
- Department of Psychology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 18015, USA
| | - Mahsa Zafarmand
- Department of Psychology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 18015, USA
| | - Nancy B. Carlisle
- Department of Psychology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 18015, USA
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2
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Ye C, Guo L, Wang N, Liu Q, Xie W. Perceptual encoding benefit of visual memorability on visual memory formation. Cognition 2024; 248:105810. [PMID: 38733867 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2023] [Revised: 03/31/2024] [Accepted: 04/29/2024] [Indexed: 05/13/2024]
Abstract
Human observers often exhibit remarkable consistency in remembering specific visual details, such as certain face images. This phenomenon is commonly attributed to visual memorability, a collection of stimulus attributes that enhance the long-term retention of visual information. However, the exact contributions of visual memorability to visual memory formation remain elusive as these effects could emerge anywhere from early perceptual encoding to post-perceptual memory consolidation processes. To clarify this, we tested three key predictions from the hypothesis that visual memorability facilitates early perceptual encoding that supports the formation of visual short-term memory (VSTM) and the retention of visual long-term memory (VLTM). First, we examined whether memorability benefits in VSTM encoding manifest early, even within the constraints of a brief stimulus presentation (100-200 ms; Experiment 1). We achieved this by manipulating stimulus presentation duration in a VSTM change detection task using face images with high- or low-memorability while ensuring they were equally familiar to the participants. Second, we assessed whether this early memorability benefit increases the likelihood of VSTM retention, even with post-stimulus masking designed to interrupt post-perceptual VSTM consolidation processes (Experiment 2). Last, we investigated the durability of memorability benefits by manipulating memory retention intervals from seconds to 24 h (Experiment 3). Across experiments, our data suggest that visual memorability has an early impact on VSTM formation, persisting across variable retention intervals and predicting subsequent VLTM overnight. Combined, these findings highlight that visual memorability enhances visual memory within 100-200 ms following stimulus onset, resulting in robust memory traces resistant to post-perceptual interruption and long-term forgetting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chaoxiong Ye
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610066, China; Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä 40014, Finland; School of Education, Anyang Normal University, Anyang 455000, China.
| | - Lijing Guo
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610066, China; Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä 40014, Finland.
| | - Nathan Wang
- Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, United States of America.
| | - Qiang Liu
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610066, China; Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä 40014, Finland.
| | - Weizhen Xie
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States of America.
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3
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Monov G, Stein H, Klock L, Gallinat J, Kühn S, Lincoln T, Krkovic K, Murphy PR, Donner TH. Linking Cognitive Integrity to Working Memory Dynamics in the Aging Human Brain. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e1883232024. [PMID: 38760163 PMCID: PMC11211717 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1883-23.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2023] [Revised: 04/13/2024] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Aging is accompanied by a decline of working memory, an important cognitive capacity that involves stimulus-selective neural activity that persists after stimulus presentation. Here, we unraveled working memory dynamics in older human adults (male and female) including those diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using a combination of behavioral modeling, neuropsychological assessment, and MEG recordings of brain activity. Younger adults (male and female) were studied with behavioral modeling only. Participants performed a visuospatial delayed match-to-sample task under systematic manipulation of the delay and distance between sample and test stimuli. Their behavior (match/nonmatch decisions) was fit with a computational model permitting the dissociation of noise in the internal operations underlying the working memory performance from a strategic decision threshold. Task accuracy decreased with delay duration and sample/test proximity. When sample/test distances were small, older adults committed more false alarms than younger adults. The computational model explained the participants' behavior well. The model parameters reflecting internal noise (not decision threshold) correlated with the precision of stimulus-selective cortical activity measured with MEG during the delay interval. The model uncovered an increase specifically in working memory noise in older compared with younger participants. Furthermore, in the MCI group, but not in the older healthy controls, internal noise correlated with the participants' clinically assessed cognitive integrity. Our results are consistent with the idea that the stability of working memory contents deteriorates in aging, in a manner that is specifically linked to the overall cognitive integrity of individuals diagnosed with MCI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gina Monov
- Section of Computational Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neurophysiology & Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Germany
| | - Henrik Stein
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Germany
| | - Leonie Klock
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Germany
| | - Juergen Gallinat
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Germany
| | - Simone Kühn
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Germany
| | - Tania Lincoln
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg 20146, Germany
| | - Katarina Krkovic
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg 20146, Germany
| | - Peter R Murphy
- Section of Computational Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neurophysiology & Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, Co. Kildare, Ireland
| | - Tobias H Donner
- Section of Computational Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neurophysiology & Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Germany
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin 10115, Germany
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4
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Tsubomi H, Fukuda K, Kikumoto A, Mayr U, Vogel EK. Task Termination Triggers Spontaneous Removal of Information From Visual Working Memory. Psychol Sci 2024:9567976241246709. [PMID: 38913829 DOI: 10.1177/09567976241246709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Working memory (WM) is a goal-directed memory system that actively maintains a limited amount of task-relevant information to serve the current goal. By this definition, WM maintenance should be terminated after the goal is accomplished, spontaneously removing no-longer-relevant information from WM. Past studies have failed to provide direct evidence of spontaneous removal of WM content by allowing participants to engage in a strategic reallocation of WM resources to competing information within WM. By contrast, we provide direct neural and behavioral evidence that visual WM content can be largely removed less than 1 s after it becomes obsolete, in the absence of a strategic allocation of resources (total N = 442 adults). These results demonstrate that visual WM is intrinsically a goal-directed system, and spontaneous removal provides a means for capacity-limited WM to keep up with ever-changing demands in a dynamic environment.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Keisuke Fukuda
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
| | - Atsushi Kikumoto
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences, Brown University
| | - Ulrich Mayr
- Department of Psychology, University of Oregon
| | - Edward K Vogel
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago
- Institute for Mind and Biology, University of Chicago
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5
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Gong L, Wang M, Ye C, Liu Q. The impact of sleep quality on visual working memory varied with the duration of maintenance. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1404989. [PMID: 38979074 PMCID: PMC11229051 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1404989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2024] [Accepted: 06/12/2024] [Indexed: 07/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Objective Sleep quality can affect the performance of visual working memory. However, the effect of sleep quality on the maintenance stage, which is the key to maintain the quality and efficiency of visual working memory representation, remains unclear. This study is the first to explore the effect of sleep quality on the maintenance of visual working memory information. Method 60 healthy college students completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and color recall task of visual working memory. A mixed experimental design of sleep quality (high or low) and delay duration (1, 4, or 6 s) was used to assess the effect of sleep quality on the maintenance phase of visual working memory. Results The main effects of sleep quality were significant on visual working memory quantity, precision and offset indexes. Among the quantity index, the interaction between sleep quality and delay duration was also significant. This suggests that prolonging the delay time in the maintenance phase leads to difficulty in maintaining attention to the task for those with lower sleep quality, which results in poorer working memory quantitative representations. Conclusion Increases in the delay duration of the maintenance phase in visual working memory intensify the impact of sleep quality on task performance. Our study provides evidence to reveal the relationship between sleep quality and visual working memory and offers recommendations for improving sleep quality and cognitive functioning in individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Gong
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
- School of Education, Anyang Normal University, Anyang, China
| | - Mengwei Wang
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
| | - Chaoxiong Ye
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Qiang Liu
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyväskylä, Finland
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6
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Abstract
Probing memory of a complex visual image within a few hundred milliseconds after its disappearance reveals significantly greater fidelity of recall than if the probe is delayed by as little as a second. Classically interpreted, the former taps into a detailed but rapidly decaying visual sensory or 'iconic' memory (IM), while the latter relies on capacity-limited but comparatively stable visual working memory (VWM). While iconic decay and VWM capacity have been extensively studied independently, currently no single framework quantitatively accounts for the dynamics of memory fidelity over these time scales. Here, we extend a stationary neural population model of VWM with a temporal dimension, incorporating rapid sensory-driven accumulation of activity encoding each visual feature in memory, and a slower accumulation of internal error that causes memorized features to randomly drift over time. Instead of facilitating read-out from an independent sensory store, an early cue benefits recall by lifting the effective limit on VWM signal strength imposed when multiple items compete for representation, allowing memory for the cued item to be supplemented with information from the decaying sensory trace. Empirical measurements of human recall dynamics validate these predictions while excluding alternative model architectures. A key conclusion is that differences in capacity classically thought to distinguish IM and VWM are in fact contingent upon a single resource-limited WM store.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ivan Tomić
- Department of Psychology, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of ZagrebZagrebCroatia
| | - Paul M Bays
- Department of Psychology, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
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7
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Zhao YJ, Zhang X, Ku Y. Divergent roles of early visual cortex and inferior frontal junction in visual working memory. Brain Stimul 2024; 17:713-720. [PMID: 38839040 DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2024.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2024] [Revised: 05/31/2024] [Accepted: 06/02/2024] [Indexed: 06/07/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent studies indicate that both prefrontal and visual regions play critical roles in visual working memory (VWM), with prefrontal regions mainly associated with executive functions, and visual cortices linked to representations of memory contents. VWM involves the selective filtering of irrelevant information, yet the specific contributions of the prefrontal regions and visual cortex in this process remain unclear. OBJECTIVE To understand the dynamic causal roles of prefrontal and visual regions in VWM. METHODS The differentiation of VWM components was achieved using a computational model that incorporated a swap rate for non-target stimuli. Single-pulse magnetic transcranial stimulation (spTMS) was delivered to the early visual cortex (EVC) and the inferior frontal junction (IFJ) across different phases of an orientation recall task that with or without distractors. RESULTS Our results indicate that spTMS over the EVC and IFJ influences VWM particularly when distractors are present. VWM precision can be impacted by spTMS applied to either region during the early retention, while spTMS effect is especially prominent when EVC is stimulated during the late retention phase and when directed at the ipsilateral EVC. Conversely, the probability of accurately recalling the target exhibited comparable patterns when spTMS was administered to either the EVC or IFJ. CONCLUSIONS We highlight the "sensory recruitment" of VWM characterized by critical involvement of EVC particularly in the information-filtering process within VWM. The maintenance of memory content representations necessitates ongoing communication between the EVC and IFJ throughout the entirety of the VWM process in a dynamic pattern.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi-Jie Zhao
- Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Shanghai Pudong New Area Mental Health Center, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Xinying Zhang
- School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Yixuan Ku
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Peng Cheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, China.
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8
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Woodry R, Curtis CE, Winawer J. Feedback scales the spatial tuning of cortical responses during visual memory. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.04.11.589111. [PMID: 38659957 PMCID: PMC11042180 DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.11.589111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
Perception, working memory, and long-term memory each evoke neural responses in visual cortex, suggesting that memory uses encoding mechanisms shared with perception. While previous research has largely focused on how perception and memory are similar, we hypothesized that responses in visual cortex would differ depending on the origins of the inputs. Using fMRI, we quantified spatial tuning in visual cortex while participants (both sexes) viewed, maintained in working memory, or retrieved from long-term memory a peripheral target. In each of these conditions, BOLD responses were spatially tuned and were aligned with the target's polar angle in all measured visual field maps including V1. As expected given the increasing sizes of receptive fields, polar angle tuning during perception increased in width systematically up the visual hierarchy from V1 to V2, V3, hV4, and beyond. In stark contrast, the widths of tuned responses were broad across the visual hierarchy during working memory and long-term memory, matched to the widths in perception in later visual field maps but much broader in V1. This pattern is consistent with the idea that mnemonic responses in V1 stem from top-down sources. Moreover, these tuned responses when biased (clockwise or counterclockwise of target) predicted matched biases in memory, suggesting that the readout of maintained and reinstated mnemonic responses influences memory guided behavior. We conclude that feedback constrains spatial tuning during memory, where earlier visual maps inherit broader tuning from later maps thereby impacting the precision of memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Woodry
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York City, NY 10003
| | - Clayton E. Curtis
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York City, NY 10003
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York City, NY 10003
| | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York City, NY 10003
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York City, NY 10003
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9
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Azarov D, Grigorev D, Utochkin I. A signal-detection account of item-based and ensemble-based visual change detection: A reply to Harrison, McMaster, and Bays. J Vis 2024; 24:10. [PMID: 38407901 PMCID: PMC10902873 DOI: 10.1167/jov.24.2.10] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2023] [Accepted: 12/27/2023] [Indexed: 02/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Growing empirical evidence shows that ensemble information (e.g., the average feature or feature variance of a set of objects) affects visual working memory for individual items. Recently, Harrison, McMaster, and Bays (2021) used a change detection task to test whether observers explicitly rely on ensemble representations to improve their memory for individual objects. They found that sensitivity to simultaneous changes in all memorized items (which also globally changed set summary statistics) rarely exceeded a level predicted by the so-called optimal summation model within the signal-detection framework. This model implies simple integration of evidence for change from all individual items and no additional evidence coming from ensemble. Here, we argue that performance at the level of optimal summation does not rule out the use of ensemble information. First, in two experiments, we show that, even if evidence from only one item is available at test, the statistics of the whole memory set affect performance. Second, we argue that optimal summation itself can be conceptually interpreted as one of the strategies of holistic, ensemble-based decision. We also redefine the reference level for the item-based strategy as the so-called "minimum rule," which predicts performance far below the optimum. We found that that both our and Harrison et al. (2021)'s observers consistently outperformed this level. We conclude that observers can rely on ensemble information when performing visual change detection. Overall, our work clarifies and refines the use of signal-detection analysis in measuring and modeling working memory.
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10
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Jabar SB, Sreenivasan KK, Lentzou S, Kanabar A, Brady TF, Fougnie D. Probabilistic and rich individual working memories revealed by a betting game. Sci Rep 2023; 13:20912. [PMID: 38017283 PMCID: PMC10684519 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-48242-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2023] [Accepted: 11/23/2023] [Indexed: 11/30/2023] Open
Abstract
When asked to remember a color, do people remember a point estimate (e.g., a particular shade of red), a point estimate plus an uncertainty estimate, or are memory representations rich probabilistic distributions over feature space? We asked participants to report the color of a circle held in working memory. Rather than collecting a single report per trial, we had participants place multiple bets to create trialwise uncertainty distributions. Bet dispersion correlated with performance, indicating that internal uncertainty guided bet placement. While the first bet was on average the most precisely placed, the later bets systematically shifted the distribution closer to the target, resulting in asymmetrical distributions about the first bet. This resulted in memory performance improvements when averaging across bets, and overall suggests that memory representations contain more information than can be conveyed by a single response. The later bets contained target information even when the first response would generally be classified as a guess or report of an incorrect item, suggesting that such failures are not all-or-none. This paradigm provides multiple pieces of evidence that memory representations are rich and probabilistic. Crucially, standard discrete response paradigms underestimate the amount of information in memory representations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Syaheed B Jabar
- Program in Psychology, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | - Kartik K Sreenivasan
- Program in Psychology, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Program in Biology, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Center for Brain & Health, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | - Stergiani Lentzou
- Program in Psychology, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | - Anish Kanabar
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA
| | - Timothy F Brady
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, USA
| | - Daryl Fougnie
- Program in Psychology, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
- Center for Brain & Health, New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
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11
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Brennan C, Proekt A. Attractor dynamics with activity-dependent plasticity capture human working memory across time scales. COMMUNICATIONS PSYCHOLOGY 2023; 1:28. [PMID: 38764555 PMCID: PMC11101211 DOI: 10.1038/s44271-023-00027-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2023] [Accepted: 09/15/2023] [Indexed: 05/21/2024]
Abstract
Most cognitive functions require the brain to maintain immediately preceding stimuli in working memory. Here, using a human working memory task with multiple delays, we test the hypothesis that working memories are stored in a discrete set of stable neuronal activity configurations called attractors. We show that while discrete attractor dynamics can approximate working memory on a single time scale, they fail to generalize across multiple timescales. This failure occurs because at longer delay intervals the responses contain more information about the stimuli than can be stored in a discrete attractor model. We present a modeling approach that combines discrete attractor dynamics with activity-dependent plasticity. This model successfully generalizes across all timescales and correctly predicts intertrial interactions. Thus, our findings suggest that discrete attractor dynamics are insufficient to model working memory and that activity-dependent plasticity improves durability of information storage in attractor systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Connor Brennan
- University of Pennsylvania, 3160 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Alex Proekt
- University of Pennsylvania, 3160 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA, USA
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12
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Teng C, Kaplan SM, Shomstein S, Kravitz DJ. Assessing the interaction between working memory and perception through time. Atten Percept Psychophys 2023; 85:2196-2209. [PMID: 37740152 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-023-02785-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/31/2023] [Indexed: 09/24/2023]
Abstract
Content maintained in visual working memory changes concurrent visual processing, suggesting that visual working memory may recruit an overlapping neural representation with visual perception. However, it remains unclear whether visual working memory representations persist as a sensory code through time, or are recoded later into an abstract code. Here, we directly contrasted a temporal decay + visual code account and a temporal decay + abstract code account within the temporal dynamics of the interaction between working memory and perception. By manipulating the ISI (inter-stimulus interval) between working memory encoding and a perceptual discrimination task, we found that task-relevant and therefore actively maintained perceptual information parametrically altered participants' ability to discriminate perceptual stimuli even 4 s after encoding, whereas task-irrelevant information caused only an acutely transient effect. While continuously present, the size of this shift in discrimination thresholds gradually decreased over time. Concomitantly, the size of the bias in working memory reports increased over time. The opposing directions of threshold and bias effects are consistent with the local maintenance of information in perceptual areas, explained by a temporal decay + visual code account. As the maintained representation decays over time, its ability to alter incoming perceptual signals decreases (reduced threshold effects) while its likelihood of being impacted by those same signals increases (increased bias effects). Altogether, these results suggest that the readout of working memory relies on a sensory representation at a cost of increased interference by ongoing perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chunyue Teng
- Department of Neuroscience, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, USA.
| | - Simon M Kaplan
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Sarah Shomstein
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Dwight J Kravitz
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
- Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA, USA
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13
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Cárdenas-Miller N, O'Donnell RE, Tam J, Wyble B. Surprise! Draw the scene: Visual recall reveals poor incidental working memory following visual search in natural scenes. Mem Cognit 2023:10.3758/s13421-023-01465-9. [PMID: 37770695 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-023-01465-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/01/2023] [Indexed: 09/30/2023]
Abstract
Searching within natural scenes can induce incidental encoding of information about the scene and the target, particularly when the scene is complex or repeated. However, recent evidence from attribute amnesia (AA) suggests that in some situations, searchers can find a target without building a robust incidental memory of its task relevant features. Through drawing-based visual recall and an AA search task, we investigated whether search in natural scenes necessitates memory encoding. Participants repeatedly searched for and located an easily detected item in novel scenes for numerous trials before being unexpectedly prompted to draw either the entire scene (Experiment 1) or their search target (Experiment 2) directly after viewing the search image. Naïve raters assessed the similarity of the drawings to the original information. We found that surprise-trial drawings of the scene and search target were both poorly recognizable, but the same drawers produced highly recognizable drawings on the next trial when they had an expectation to draw the image. Experiment 3 further showed that the poor surprise trial memory could not merely be attributed to interference from the surprising event. Our findings suggest that even for searches done in natural scenes, it is possible to locate a target without creating a robust memory of either it or the scene it was in, even if attended to just a few seconds prior. This disconnection between attention and memory might reflect a fundamental property of cognitive computations designed to optimize task performance and minimize resource use.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ryan E O'Donnell
- Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
- Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Joyce Tam
- Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Brad Wyble
- Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
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14
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Li AY, Yuan JY, Pun C, Barense MD. The effect of memory load on object reconstruction: Insights from an online mouse-tracking task. Atten Percept Psychophys 2023; 85:1612-1630. [PMID: 36600154 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-022-02650-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
Why can't we remember everything that we experience? Previous work in the domain of object memory has suggested that our ability to resolve interference between relevant and irrelevant object features may limit how much we can remember at any given moment. Here, we developed an online mouse-tracking task to study how memory load influences object reconstruction, testing participants synchronously over virtual conference calls. We first tested up to 18 participants concurrently, replicating memory findings from a condition where participants were tested individually. Next, we examined how memory load influenced mouse trajectories as participants reconstructed target objects. We found interference between the contents of working memory and what was perceived during object reconstruction, an effect that interacted with visual similarity and memory load. Furthermore, we found interference from previously studied but currently irrelevant objects, providing evidence of object-to-location binding errors. At the greatest memory load, participants were nearly three times more likely to move their mouse cursor over previously studied nontarget objects, an effect observed primarily during object reconstruction rather than in the period before the final response. As evidence of the dynamic interplay between working memory and perception, these results show that object reconstruction behavior may be altered by (i) interference between what is represented in mind and what is currently being viewed, and (ii) interference from previously studied but currently irrelevant information. Finally, we discuss how mouse tracking can provide a rich characterization of participant behavior at millisecond temporal resolution, enormously increasing power in cognitive psychology experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aedan Y Li
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G3, Canada.
| | - James Y Yuan
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G3, Canada.
| | - Carson Pun
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G3, Canada
| | - Morgan D Barense
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G3, Canada
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15
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Xie W, Ye C, Zhang W. Negative emotion reduces visual working memory recall variability: A meta-analytical review. Emotion 2023; 23:859-871. [PMID: 35951384 PMCID: PMC9918615 DOI: 10.1037/emo0001139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Negative emotion is often hypothesized to trigger a more deliberate processing mode. This effect can manifest as increased precision of information maintained in working memory (WM) captured by reduced WM recall variability under an induced negative emotional state. However, some recent evidence shows that WM representations are immune to any emotional influences. Here, we meta-analyze existing evidence based on data from 13 experiments across 491 participants who performed a delay-estimation WM task under negative and neutral emotional states. We find that induced negative emotional state modestly reduces WM recall variability and increases recall failures relative to the neutral condition. These effects are moderated by participants' self-report negative experiences during emotion induction. Collectively, these data suggest that negative emotion influences how much and how well one can remember in WM. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
- Weizhen Xie
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Chaoxiong Ye
- Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyväskylä, Finland
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Sichuan, China
| | - Weiwei Zhang
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA
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16
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Plater L, Nyman S, Joubran S, Al-Aidroos N. Repetition enhances the effects of activated long-term memory. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2023; 76:621-631. [PMID: 35400220 PMCID: PMC9936439 DOI: 10.1177/17470218221095755] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Recent research indicates that visual long-term memory (vLTM) representations directly interface with perception and guide attention. This may be accomplished through a state known as activated LTM, however, little is known about the nature of activated LTM. Is it possible to enhance the attentional effects of these activated representations? And furthermore, is activated LTM discrete (i.e., a representation is either active or not active, but only active representations interact with perception) or continuous (i.e., there are different levels within the active state that all interact with perception)? To answer these questions, in the present study, we measured intrusion effects during a modified Sternberg task. Participants saw two lists of three complex visual objects, were cued that only one list was relevant for the current trial (the other list was, thus, irrelevant), and then their memory for the cued list was probed. Critically, half of the trials contained repeat objects (shown 10 times each), and half of the trials contained non-repeat objects (shown only once each). Results indicated that repetition enhanced activated LTM, as the intrusion effect (i.e., longer reaction times to irrelevant list objects than novel objects) was larger for repeat trials compared with non-repeat trials. These initial findings provide preliminary support that LTM activation is continuous, as the intrusion effect was not the same size for repeat and non-repeat trials. We conclude that researchers should repeat stimuli to increase the size of their effects and enhance how LTM representations interact with perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsay Plater
- Lindsay Plater, Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1.
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17
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Levin EJ, Brissenden JA, Fengler A, Badre D. Predicted utility modulates working memory fidelity in the brain. Cortex 2023; 160:115-133. [PMID: 36841093 PMCID: PMC10023440 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.09.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2021] [Revised: 06/15/2022] [Accepted: 09/10/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
The predicted utility of information stored in working memory (WM) is hypothesized to influence the strategic allocation of WM resources. Prior work has shown that when information is prioritized, it is remembered with greater precision relative to other remembered items. However, these paradigms often complicate interpretation of the effects of predicted utility on item fidelity due to a concurrent memory load. Likewise, no fMRI studies have examined whether the predicted utility of an item modulates fidelity in the neural representation of items during the memory delay without a concurrent load. In the current study, we used fMRI to investigate whether predicted utility influences fidelity of WM representations in the brain. Using a generative model multivoxel analysis approach to estimate the quality of remembered representations across predicted utility conditions, we observed that items with greater predicted utility are maintained in memory with greater fidelity, even when they are the only item being maintained. Further, we found that this pattern follows a parametric relationship where more predicted utility corresponded to greater fidelity. These precision differences could not be accounted for based on a redistribution of resources among already-remembered items. Rather, we interpret these results in terms of a gating mechanism that allows for pre-allocation of resources based on predicted value alone. This evidence supports a theoretical distinction between resource allocation that occurs as a result of load and resource pre-allocation that occurs as a result of predicted utility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily J Levin
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, USA; University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, USA.
| | - James A Brissenden
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Alexander Fengler
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, USA; Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, USA
| | - David Badre
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, USA; Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, USA
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18
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Grinstead J, Ortiz-Ramírez P, Carreto-Guadarrama X, Arrieta-Zamudio A, Pratt A, Cantú-Sánchez M, Lefcheck J, Melamed D. Piecewise Structural Equation Modeling of the Quantity Implicature in Child Language. LANGUAGE AND SPEECH 2023; 66:35-67. [PMID: 35000483 DOI: 10.1177/00238309211066086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
We review an array of experimental methodological factors that either contribute to or detract from the measurement of pragmatic implicatures in child language. We carry out a truth value judgment task to measure children's interpretations of the Spanish existential quantifier algunos in implicature-consistent and implicature-inconsistent contexts. Independently, we take measures of children's inhibition, working memory, attention, approximate number ability, phrasal syntax, and lexicon. We model the interplay of these variables using a piecewise structural equation model (SEM), common in the life sciences, but not in the social and behavioral sciences. By 6 years of age, the children in our sample were not statistically different from adults in their interpretations. Syntax, lexicon, and inhibition significantly predict implicature generation, each accounting for unique variance. The approximate number system and inhibition significantly predict lexical development. The statistical power of the piecewise SEM components, with a sample of 64 children, is high, in comparison to a traditional, globally estimated SEM of the same data.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Amy Pratt
- University of California, Irvine, USA
| | | | - Jonathan Lefcheck
- The Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network, MarineGEO, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, USA
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19
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Adamo SH, Roque N, Barufaldi B, Schmidt J, Mello-Thoms C, Lago M. Assessing satisfaction of search in virtual mammograms for experienced and novice searchers. J Med Imaging (Bellingham) 2023; 10:S11917. [PMID: 37485309 PMCID: PMC10359808 DOI: 10.1117/1.jmi.10.s1.s11917] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2022] [Revised: 06/08/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Purpose Satisfaction of search (SOS) is a phenomenon where searchers are more likely to miss a lesion/target after detecting a first lesion/target. Here, we investigated SOS for masses and calcifications in virtual mammograms with experienced and novice searchers to determine the extent to which: (1) SOS affects breast lesion detection, (2) similarity between lesions impacts detection, and (3) experience impacts SOS rates. Approach The open virtual clinical trials framework was used to simulate the breast anatomy of patients, and up to two simulated masses and/or single-calcifications were inserted into the breast models. Experienced searchers (residents, fellows, and radiologists with breast imaging experience) and novice searchers (undergraduates who had no breast imaging experience) were instructed to search for up to two lesions (masses and calcifications) per image. Results 2 × 2 mixed factors analysis of variances (ANOVAs) were run with: (1) single versus second lesion hit rates, (2) similar versus dissimilar second-lesion hit rates, and (3) similar versus dissimilar second-lesion response times as within-subject factors and experience as the between subject's factor. The ANOVAs demonstrated that: (1) experienced and novice searchers made a significant amount of SOS errors, (2) similarity had little impact on experienced searchers, but novice searchers were more likely to miss a dissimilar second lesion compared to when it was similar to a detected first lesion, (3) experienced and novice searchers were faster at finding similar compared to dissimilar second lesions. Conclusions We demonstrated that SOS is a significant cause of lesion misses in virtual mammograms and that reader experience impacts detection rates for similar compared to dissimilar abnormalities. These results suggest that experience may impact strategy and/or recognition with theoretical implications for determining why SOS occurs.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nelson Roque
- University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, United States
| | - Bruno Barufaldi
- University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Joseph Schmidt
- University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, United States
| | | | - Miguel Lago
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
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20
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Lei L, Zhang M, Li T, Dong Y, Wang DH. A spiking network model for clustering report in a visual working memory task. Front Comput Neurosci 2023; 16:1030073. [PMID: 36714529 PMCID: PMC9878295 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2022.1030073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Working memory (WM) plays a key role in many cognitive processes, and great interest has been attracted by WM for many decades. Recently, it has been observed that the reports of the memorized color sampled from a uniform distribution are clustered, and the report error for the stimulus follows a Gaussian distribution. Methods Based on the well-established ring model for visuospatial WM, we constructed a spiking network model with heterogeneous connectivity and embedded short-term plasticity (STP) to investigate the neurodynamic mechanisms behind this interesting phenomenon. Results As a result, our model reproduced the clustering report given stimuli sampled from a uniform distribution and the error of the report following a Gaussian distribution. Perturbation studies showed that the heterogeneity of connectivity and STP are necessary to explain experimental observations. Conclusion Our model provides a new perspective on the phenomenon of visual WM in experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lixing Lei
- School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Mengya Zhang
- School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Tingyu Li
- School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Yelin Dong
- School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, United States
| | - Da-Hui Wang
- School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
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21
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Kiss M, Nemeth D, Janacsek K. Do temporal factors affect whether our performance accurately reflects our underlying knowledge? The effects of stimulus presentation rates on the performance versus competence dissociation. Cortex 2022; 157:65-80. [PMID: 36274443 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2020] [Revised: 04/05/2022] [Accepted: 09/02/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Ample evidence shows that the momentary performance can dissociate from the underlying knowledge (competence). Under what circumstances such dissociation occurs, however, remains unclear. Here we tested how temporal factors, and more specifically, the elapsed time between subsequent events affects the dissociation between performance and competence by systematically manipulating the stimulus presentation rates during and after learning. Participants completed a probabilistic sequence learning task with a fast (120 msec) or a slow (850 msec) response-to-stimulus-interval (RSI) during the Learning phase and they were tested with both RSIs 24 h later (Testing phase). We also tested whether they gained explicit knowledge about the sequence or their knowledge remained implicit. Our results revealed higher reaction time learning scores when tested with the fast RSI, irrespective of the RSI during learning, suggesting that faster presentation rates can help better express the acquired knowledge, leading to increased performance measures. For accuracy, participants showed higher learning scores when tested with the same presentation rate as the one that they encountered during learning. The acquired knowledge remained implicit in both groups, suggesting that the observed findings were not confounded by differences in awareness gained in the two groups. Overall, our study highlights that the momentary performance does not always accurately reflect the underlying knowledge, and temporal factors seem to influence this dissociation. Our findings have theoretical, methodological, and translational implications that likely extend beyond learning and memory to other functions and domains as well, including aspects of decision-making, perception, theory of mind, and language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariann Kiss
- Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary; Brain, Memory and Language Research Group, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Dezso Nemeth
- Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; Brain, Memory and Language Research Group, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France.
| | - Karolina Janacsek
- Centre for Thinking and Learning, Institute of Lifecourse Development, School of Human Sciences, Faculty of Education, Health and Human Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom; Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
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22
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Jones B, Ching S. Synthesizing network dynamics for short-term memory of impulsive inputs. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ... IEEE CONFERENCE ON DECISION & CONTROL. IEEE CONFERENCE ON DECISION & CONTROL 2022; 2022:6836-6841. [PMID: 37151985 PMCID: PMC10162585 DOI: 10.1109/cdc51059.2022.9993238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
Illuminating the mechanisms that the brain uses to manage and coordinate its resources is a core question in neuroscience. In particular, circuits and networks in the brain are able to encode, store and recall large amounts of information, in the service of a wide range of functionality. How do the various dynamical mechanisms within these networks allow for such coordination? We consider the specific problem of how the dynamics of networks can enact a representation of input stimuli that is retained over time, i.e., a form of short-term memory. We utilize modeling and control-theoretic methods to approach these questions, treating the state trajectory of a dynamical system as an abstract memory trace of prior inputs. The inputs impinge on the network via a variable gain, which is to be synthesized by optimization. In order to perpetuate these memory traces of stimuli, we propose that this gain is adapted to optimize: i) the error between a ground truth representation of stimuli and the encoding of them; as well as ii) overwriting of prior information. Optimizing over these central tenets of memory, we obtain a 'policy' for adapting the input gain that is dependent on the state of the network. This derived policy yields a recurrent neural network between the policy and the neural circuits, affirming existing theories that the prefrontal cortex may hold subnetworks dedicated to working memory while actively engaging with other neural subnetworks.
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Affiliation(s)
- BethAnna Jones
- Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering, Washington Univeristy in St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
| | - ShiNung Ching
- Faculty of Electrical & Systems Engineering, Washington Univeristy in St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
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23
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Chunharas C, Rademaker RL, Brady TF, Serences JT. An adaptive perspective on visual working memory distortions. J Exp Psychol Gen 2022; 151:2300-2323. [PMID: 35191726 PMCID: PMC9392817 DOI: 10.1037/xge0001191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/06/2023]
Abstract
When holding multiple items in visual working memory, representations of individual items are often attracted to, or repelled from, each other. While this is empirically well-established, existing frameworks do not account for both types of distortions, which appear to be in opposition. Here, we demonstrate that both types of memory distortion may confer functional benefits under different circumstances. When there are many items to remember and subjects are near their capacity to accurately remember each item individually, memories for each item become more similar (attraction). However, when remembering smaller sets of highly similar but discernible items, memory for each item becomes more distinct (repulsion), possibly to support better discrimination. Importantly, this repulsion grows stronger with longer delays, suggesting that it dynamically evolves in memory and is not just a differentiation process that occurs during encoding. Furthermore, both attraction and repulsion occur even in tasks designed to mitigate response bias concerns, suggesting they are genuine changes in memory representations. Together, these results are in line with the theory that attraction biases act to stabilize memory signals by capitalizing on information about an entire group of items, whereas repulsion biases reflect a tradeoff between maintaining accurate but distinct representations. Both biases suggest that human memory systems may sacrifice veridical representations in favor of representations that better support specific behavioral goals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
- Chaipat Chunharas
- Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
- Department of Medicine, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
- Chulalongkorn Cognitive, Clinical & Computational Neuroscience research group, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Rosanne L. Rademaker
- Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
- Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in cooperation with the Max Planck Society, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Timothy F. Brady
- Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
| | - John T. Serences
- Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
- Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
- Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
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24
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Yörük H, Tamber-Rosenau BJ. Simultaneously and sequentially presented arrays evoke similar visual working memory crowding. VISUAL COGNITION 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2022.2099497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
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25
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Kuuramo C, Saarinen J, Kurki I. Forgetting in visual working memory: Internal noise explains decay of feature representations. J Vis 2022; 22:8. [PMID: 35838485 PMCID: PMC9296891 DOI: 10.1167/jov.22.8.8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The precision of visual working memory (VWM) representations decreases as time passes. It is often assumed that VWM decay is random and caused by internal noise accumulation. However, forgetting in VWM could occur systematically, such that some features deteriorate more rapidly than others. There exist only a few studies testing these two models of forgetting, with conflicting results. Here, decay of features in VWM was thoroughly tested using signal detection theory methods: psychophysical classification images, internal noise estimation, and receiver operant characteristic (ROC). A modified same–different memory task was employed with two retention times (500 and 4000 ms). Experiment 1 investigated VWM decay using a compound grating memory task, and Experiment 2 tested shape memory using radial frequency patterns. Memory performance dropped some 15% with increasing retention time in both experiments. Interestingly, classification images showed virtually indistinguishable weighting of stimulus features at both retention times, suggesting that VWM decay is not feature specific. Instead, we found a 77% increase in stimulus-independent internal noise at the longer retention time. Finally, the slope of the ROC curve plotted as z-scores was shallower at the longer retention time, indicating that the amount of stimulus-independent internal noise increased. Together these findings provide strong support for the idea that VWM decay does not result from a systematic loss of some stimulus features but instead is caused by uniformly increasing random internal noise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Crista Kuuramo
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,
| | - Jussi Saarinen
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,
| | - Ilmari Kurki
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,
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26
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Sghirripa S, Graetz L, Rogasch NC, Semmler JG, Goldsworthy MR. Does predictive cueing of presentation time modulate alpha power and facilitate visual working memory performance in younger and older adults? Brain Cogn 2022; 159:105861. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2022.105861] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2021] [Revised: 02/07/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
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27
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Gambarota F, Tsuchiya N, Pastore M, Di Polito N, Sessa P. Unconscious Visual Working Memory: A critical review and Bayesian meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 136:104618. [PMID: 35289273 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104618] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2021] [Revised: 03/08/2022] [Accepted: 03/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The relationship between consciousness and working memory (WM) has been recently debated both at the theoretical and methodological levels (Persuh et al., 2018; Velichkovsky, 2017). While there is behavioral and neural evidence that argues for the existence of unconscious WM, several methodological concerns have been raised, rendering this issue highly controversial. To address the robustness of the previous findings, here we adopt a meta-analytic approach to estimate the effect size and heterogeneity of the previously reported unconscious WM results, also including unpublished results. We used meta-regression to isolate relevant experimental variables, in particular, consciousness manipulation and the WM paradigm to identify the source of the heterogeneity in the reported effect size of the unconscious WM. Our meta-analysis supports the existence of the unconscious WM effect and critically reveals several experimental variables that contribute to relevant heterogeneity. Our analysis clarifies several theoretical and methodological issues. We recommend that future studies explicitly operationalize the definition of consciousness, standardize the methodology and systematically explore the role of critical variables for the unconscious WM effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Filippo Gambarota
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padova, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Via Giuseppe Orus, 2, 35131 Padova, Italy.
| | - Naotsugu Tsuchiya
- Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health & School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan; Advanced Telecommunications Research Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto 619-0288, Japan.
| | - Massimiliano Pastore
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padova, Italy.
| | - Nicola Di Polito
- Medical Neurosciences Program, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Charitépl 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Paola Sessa
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padova, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Via Giuseppe Orus, 2, 35131 Padova, Italy.
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28
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You 游文愷 WK, Mysore SP. Dynamics of Visual Perceptual Decision-Making in Freely Behaving Mice. eNeuro 2022; 9:ENEURO.0161-21.2022. [PMID: 35228308 DOI: 10.1101/2020.02.20.958652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2021] [Revised: 02/14/2022] [Accepted: 02/17/2022] [Indexed: 05/25/2023] Open
Abstract
The temporal dynamics of perceptual decisions offer a key window into the cognitive processes contributing to decision-making. Investigating perceptual dynamics in a genetically tractable animal model can facilitate the subsequent unpacking of the underlying neural mechanisms. Here, we investigated the time course as well as fundamental psychophysical constants governing visual perceptual decision-making in freely behaving mice. We did so by analyzing response accuracy against reaction time (RT), i.e., conditional accuracy, in a series of two-alternative forced choice (2-AFC) orientation discrimination tasks in which we varied target size, luminance, duration, and presence of a foil. Our results quantified two distinct stages in the time course of mouse visual decision-making: a "sensory encoding" stage in which conditional accuracy exhibits a classic trade-off with response speed, and a subsequent "short-term memory (STM)-dependent" stage in which conditional accuracy exhibits a classic asymptotic decay following stimulus offset. We estimated the duration of visual sensory encoding as 200-320 ms across tasks, the lower bound of the duration of STM as ∼1700 ms, and the briefest duration of visual stimulus input that is informative as ≤50 ms. Separately, by varying stimulus onset delay, we demonstrated that the conditional accuracy function (CAF) and RT distribution can be independently modulated, and found that the duration for which mice naturally withhold from responding is a quantitative metric of impulsivity. Taken together, our results establish a quantitative foundation for investigating the neural circuit bases of visual decision dynamics in mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen-Kai You 游文愷
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205
- The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205
| | - Shreesh P Mysore
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205
- The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205
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Dynamics of Visual Perceptual Decision-Making in Freely Behaving Mice. eNeuro 2022; 9:ENEURO.0161-21.2022. [PMID: 35228308 PMCID: PMC8925649 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0161-21.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2021] [Revised: 02/14/2022] [Accepted: 02/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The temporal dynamics of perceptual decisions offer a key window into the cognitive processes contributing to decision-making. Investigating perceptual dynamics in a genetically tractable animal model can facilitate the subsequent unpacking of the underlying neural mechanisms. Here, we investigated the time course as well as fundamental psychophysical constants governing visual perceptual decision-making in freely behaving mice. We did so by analyzing response accuracy against reaction time (RT), i.e., conditional accuracy, in a series of two-alternative forced choice (2-AFC) orientation discrimination tasks in which we varied target size, luminance, duration, and presence of a foil. Our results quantified two distinct stages in the time course of mouse visual decision-making: a “sensory encoding” stage in which conditional accuracy exhibits a classic trade-off with response speed, and a subsequent “short-term memory (STM)-dependent” stage in which conditional accuracy exhibits a classic asymptotic decay following stimulus offset. We estimated the duration of visual sensory encoding as 200–320 ms across tasks, the lower bound of the duration of STM as ∼1700 ms, and the briefest duration of visual stimulus input that is informative as ≤50 ms. Separately, by varying stimulus onset delay, we demonstrated that the conditional accuracy function (CAF) and RT distribution can be independently modulated, and found that the duration for which mice naturally withhold from responding is a quantitative metric of impulsivity. Taken together, our results establish a quantitative foundation for investigating the neural circuit bases of visual decision dynamics in mice.
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Hodel A, Olszewska J, Falkowski A. With concreteness details fade: dissociative effect of labelling of concrete and abstract stimuli on memory. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2021.2018446] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Amy Hodel
- College of Letters and Science, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI, USA
| | - Justyna Olszewska
- College of Letters and Science, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI, USA
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31
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Cohen-Dallal H, Rahamim Elyakim N, Soroker N, Pertzov Y. Verbal tagging can impair memory of object location: Evidence from aphasia. Neuropsychologia 2022; 167:108162. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2021] [Revised: 10/31/2021] [Accepted: 01/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Alpha suppression indexes a spotlight of visual-spatial attention that can shine on both perceptual and memory representations. Psychon Bull Rev 2021; 29:681-698. [PMID: 34877635 PMCID: PMC10067153 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-021-02034-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Although researchers have been recording the human electroencephalogram (EEG) for almost a century, we still do not completely understand what cognitive processes are measured by the activity of different frequency bands. The 8- to 12-Hz activity in the alpha band has long been a focus of this research, but our understanding of its links to cognitive mechanisms has been rapidly evolving recently. Here, we review and discuss the existing evidence for two competing perspectives about alpha activity. One view proposes that the suppression of alpha-band power following the onset of a stimulus array measures attentional selection. The competing view is that this same activity measures the buffering of the task-relevant representations in working memory. We conclude that alpha-band activity following the presentation of stimuli appears to be due to the operation of an attentional selection mechanism, with characteristics that mirror the classic views of attention as selecting both perceptual inputs and representations already stored in memory.
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Zhao YJ, Ma T, Zhang L, Ran X, Zhang RY, Ku Y. Atypically larger variability of resource allocation accounts for visual working memory deficits in schizophrenia. PLoS Comput Biol 2021; 17:e1009544. [PMID: 34748538 PMCID: PMC8601612 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2021] [Revised: 11/18/2021] [Accepted: 10/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Working memory (WM) deficits have been widely documented in schizophrenia (SZ), and almost all existing studies attributed the deficits to decreased capacity as compared to healthy control (HC) subjects. Recent developments in WM research suggest that other components, such as precision, also mediate behavioral performance. It remains unclear how different WM components jointly contribute to deficits in schizophrenia. We measured the performance of 60 SZ (31 females) and 61 HC (29 females) in a classical delay-estimation visual working memory (VWM) task and evaluated several influential computational models proposed in basic science of VWM to disentangle the effect of various memory components. We show that the model assuming variable precision (VP) across items and trials is the best model to explain the performance of both groups. According to the VP model, SZ exhibited abnormally larger variability of allocating memory resources rather than resources or capacity per se. Finally, individual differences in the resource allocation variability predicted variation of symptom severity in SZ, highlighting its functional relevance to schizophrenic pathology. This finding was further verified using distinct visual features and subject cohorts. These results provide an alternative view instead of the widely accepted decreased-capacity theory and highlight the key role of elevated resource allocation variability in generating atypical VWM behavior in schizophrenia. Our findings also shed new light on the utility of Bayesian observer models to characterize mechanisms of mental deficits in clinical neuroscience. Working memory is a core cognitive function related to a broad range of cognitive domains such as problem-solving, attention, executive control, and IQ. Although working memory deficits have been well-documented in schizophrenia, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Conventional working memory theories attribute working memory deficits in schizophrenia to their reduced memory capacity, overlooking the potential roles of other memory components, such as precision. In this study, we take the approach of computational psychiatry and use computational modeling to uncover the major determinants of working memory deficits. We assess working memory performance of a large cohort of participants (60 schizophrenia patients and 61 demographic matched healthy controls) and evaluate multiple mainstream computational models of visual working memory. The variable precision model turns out to be the best model for both groups. We further find that the poorer performance of schizophrenia patients arises from heterogeneous distribution of memory resources when encoding items in memory. This resource allocation variability can also predict symptom severity in schizophrenia. Our study highlights the use of computational models in psychiatric researches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi-Jie Zhao
- Center for Brain and Mental Well-being, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
- Peng Cheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, China
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Tianye Ma
- School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Li Zhang
- Shanghai Changning Mental Health Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Xuemei Ran
- School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Ru-Yuan Zhang
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
- * E-mail: (R-YZ); (YK)
| | - Yixuan Ku
- Center for Brain and Mental Well-being, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
- Peng Cheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, China
- * E-mail: (R-YZ); (YK)
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34
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Perceptual stimuli with novel bindings interfere with visual working memory. Atten Percept Psychophys 2021; 83:3086-3103. [PMID: 34476762 PMCID: PMC8550721 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-021-02359-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
What influences the extent to which perceptual information interferes with the contents of visual working memory? In two experiments using a combination of change detection and continuous reproduction tasks, I show that binding novelty is a key factor in producing interference. In Experiment 2, participants viewed arrays of colored circles, then completed consecutive change detection and recall tests of their memory for stochastically independent items from the same array. When the probe used in the change detection test was novel (i.e., required a “change” response), subsequent recall performance was worse than in trials with matching (i.e., “no change”) probes, irrespective of whether or not the same item was tested in both phases. In Experiment 2, participants viewed arrays of oriented arrows, then completed a change detection (requiring memory) or direction judgement (not requiring memory) test, followed by recalling a stochastically independent item. Again, novel probes in the first phase led to worse recall, irrespective of whether the initial task required memory. This effect held whether the probe was wholly novel (i.e., a new feature presented at any location) or simply involved a novel binding (i.e., an old feature presented at a new location). These findings highlight the role of novelty in visual interference, consistent with the assumptions of computational models of WM, and suggest that new bindings of old information are sufficient to produce such interference.
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35
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Jiang L, Leung HC. Errors in visuospatial working memory across space and time. Sci Rep 2021; 11:14449. [PMID: 34262103 PMCID: PMC8280190 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-93858-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2021] [Accepted: 06/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Visuospatial working memory (VSWM) involves cortical regions along the dorsal visual pathway, which are topographically organized with respect to the visual space. However, it remains unclear how such functional organization may constrain VSWM behavior across space and time. Here, we systematically mapped VSWM performance across the 2-dimensional (2D) space in various retention intervals in human subjects using the memory-guided and visually guided saccade tasks in two experiments. Relative to visually guided saccades, memory-guided saccades showed significant increases in unsystematic errors, or response variability, with increasing target eccentricity (3°-13° of visual angle). Unsystematic errors also increased with increasing delay (1.5-3 s, Experiment 1; 0.5-5 s, Experiment 2), while there was little or no interaction between delay and eccentricity. Continuous bump attractor modeling suggested neurophysiological and functional organization factors in the increasing unsystematic errors in VSWM across space and time. These findings indicate that: (1) VSWM representation may be limited by the functional topology of the visual pathway for the 2D space; (2) Unsystematic errors may reflect accumulated noise from memory maintenance while systematic errors may originate from non-mnemonic processes such as noisy sensorimotor transformation; (3) There may be independent mechanisms supporting the spatial and temporal processing of VSWM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linjing Jiang
- Integrative Neuroscience Program, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA.
| | - Hoi-Chung Leung
- Integrative Neuroscience Program, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA.
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36
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Hao Y, Li X, Zhang H, Ku Y. Free-recall benefit, inhomogeneity and between-item interference in working memory. Cognition 2021; 214:104739. [PMID: 33901834 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104739] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2020] [Revised: 04/12/2021] [Accepted: 04/14/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
We investigated visual working memory (VWM) with a whole-report task, where participants were asked to sequentially recall all the items in an order either chosen by themselves (free recall) or randomly chosen by the computer (forced recall). Comparisons between free and forced recalls helped us understand important but largely neglected aspects of VWM, such as inhomogeneity (different levels of precision) and between-item interference. One unique part of our task was the introduction of a separate item-selection stage before each recall, during which participants located the next item to recall. Their mouse trajectory was recorded and served as a dynamic measure of between-item interference over time. We found a free-recall benefit: the overall precision of all items is higher in free recall than in forced recall. Meanwhile, during item-selection, free recall is associated with faster localization of the target and less interference from the other items in memory. We also found evidence for inhomogeneity and discuss the connection of inhomogeneity and between-item interference to the free-recall benefit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuting Hao
- Center for Brain and Mental Well-being, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Peng Cheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Shanghai Changning-ECNU Mental Health Center, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiang Li
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Hang Zhang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China; PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China; Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Beijing, China; Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China.
| | - Yixuan Ku
- Center for Brain and Mental Well-being, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Peng Cheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Shanghai Changning-ECNU Mental Health Center, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, NYU Shanghai and Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Shanghai, China.
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37
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Papadimitriou C, Holmes CD, Snyder LH. Primate Spatial Memory Cells Become Tuned Early and Lose Tuning at Cell-Specific Times. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:4206-4219. [PMID: 33866356 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2020] [Revised: 01/28/2021] [Accepted: 02/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Working memory, the ability to maintain and transform information, is critical for cognition. Spatial working memory is particularly well studied. The premier model for spatial memory is the continuous attractor network, which posits that cells maintain constant activity over memory periods. Alternative models propose complex dynamics that result in a variety of cell activity time courses. We recorded from neurons in the frontal eye fields and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of 2 macaques during long (5-15 s) memory periods. We found that memory cells turn on early after stimulus presentation, sustain activity for distinct and fixed lengths of time, then turn off and stay off for the remainder of the memory period. These dynamics are more complex than the dynamics of a canonical bump attractor network model (either decaying or nondecaying) but more constrained than the dynamics of fully heterogeneous memory models. We speculate that memory may be supported by multiple attractor networks working in parallel, with each network having its own characteristic mean turn-off time such that mnemonic resources are gradually freed up over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charalampos Papadimitriou
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
| | - Charles D Holmes
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
| | - Lawrence H Snyder
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
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38
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Abstract
Working memory maintains information in a readily accessible state and has been shown to degrade as the length of the retention interval increases. Previous research has suggested that this decline is attributable to changes in precision as well as sudden loss of item representations. Here, by measuring trial-to-trial variations in performance, we examined an orthogonal distinction between the maximum number of items that an individual can store, and the probability of achieving that maximum. Across two experiments, we replicated the finding that performance declines after long (10 s) retention intervals, as well as past observations that forgetting was due to probabilistic dropping of individual items rather than all-or-none losses of the stored memories. Critically, longer retention intervals did not reduce the maximum amount of information that could be stored in working memory. Instead, lower attentional control accounted for a decreased probability of maintaining the maximum number of items in working memory. Thus, longer retention intervals impact working memory storage via fluctuations in attentional control that lower the probability of achieving a stable maximum storage capacity.
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39
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Attention effects in working memory that are asymmetric across sensory modalities. Mem Cognit 2021; 49:1050-1065. [PMID: 33694052 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-021-01142-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
A key unanswered question about working memory is the nature of interference between items. At one extreme of existing theories, interference occurs between any two items because of a general capacity limit. At another extreme, interference depends on the similarity between particular features of different items. We examine this question in three experiments by presenting two sets of items on each trial, comprising tones or colors, with three levels of similarity between the two sets: cross-modal, unimodal with different marking features (two different musical instruments or shapes), and unimodal with the same marking feature. Another question is the extent to which the entry of presented items into working memory is obligatory or optional, which we examined by requiring retention of the first, the second, or both sets of stimuli for a recognition test shortly after the presentation of the two sets. The combination of the set similarity and attention manipulations allows us to draw conclusions about the nature of working-memory storage. The findings were not entirely in accord with any pre-existing theory. The effects of feature similarity were present in both modalities but more pronounced for sounds, whereas the detrimental effects of attention to both sets for retention occurred only for visual stimuli. Based on the findings we suggest a new, hybrid conception of working memory storage.
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40
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Mathias SR, Varghese L, Micheyl C, Shinn-Cunningham BG. Gradual decay and sudden death of short-term memory for pitch. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2021; 149:259. [PMID: 33514136 PMCID: PMC7803383 DOI: 10.1121/10.0002992] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2020] [Revised: 11/17/2020] [Accepted: 12/08/2020] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
The ability to discriminate frequency differences between pure tones declines as the duration of the interstimulus interval (ISI) increases. The conventional explanation for this finding is that pitch representations gradually decay from auditory short-term memory. Gradual decay means that internal noise increases with increasing ISI duration. Another possibility is that pitch representations experience "sudden death," disappearing without a trace from memory. Sudden death means that listeners guess (respond at random) more often when the ISIs are longer. Since internal noise and guessing probabilities influence the shape of psychometric functions in different ways, they can be estimated simultaneously. Eleven amateur musicians performed a two-interval, two-alternative forced-choice frequency-discrimination task. The frequencies of the first tones were roved, and frequency differences and ISI durations were manipulated across trials. Data were analyzed using Bayesian models that simultaneously estimated internal noise and guessing probabilities. On average across listeners, internal noise increased monotonically as a function of increasing ISI duration, suggesting that gradual decay occurred. The guessing rate decreased with an increasing ISI duration between 0.5 and 2 s but then increased with further increases in ISI duration, suggesting that sudden death occurred but perhaps only at longer ISIs. Results are problematic for decay-only models of discrimination and contrast with those from a study on visual short-term memory, which found that over similar durations, visual representations experienced little gradual decay yet substantial sudden death.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samuel R Mathias
- Department of Psychiatry, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| | - Leonard Varghese
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth, Massachusetts 02747, USA
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41
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Kim H, Smolker HR, Smith LL, Banich MT, Lewis-Peacock JA. Changes to information in working memory depend on distinct removal operations. Nat Commun 2020; 11:6239. [PMID: 33288756 PMCID: PMC7721711 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20085-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2019] [Accepted: 10/23/2020] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Holding information in working memory is essential for cognition, but removing unwanted thoughts is equally important. Here we use multivariate pattern analyses of brain activity to demonstrate the successful manipulation and removal of information from working memory using different strategies including suppressing a specific thought, replacing a thought with a different one, and clearing the mind of all thought. These strategies are supported by distinct brain regions and have differential consequences for allowing new information to be encoded.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyojeong Kim
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78701, USA
| | - Harry R Smolker
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA
| | - Louisa L Smith
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA
| | - Marie T Banich
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA
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42
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Grogan JP, Fallon SJ, Zokaei N, Husain M, Coulthard EJ, Manohar SG. A new toolbox to distinguish the sources of spatial memory error. J Vis 2020; 20:6. [PMID: 33289797 PMCID: PMC7726590 DOI: 10.1167/jov.20.13.6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2019] [Accepted: 10/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Studying the sources of errors in memory recall has proven invaluable for understanding the mechanisms of working memory (WM). While one-dimensional memory features (e.g., color, orientation) can be analyzed using existing mixture modeling toolboxes to separate the influence of imprecision, guessing, and misbinding (the tendency to confuse features that belong to different memoranda), such toolboxes are not currently available for two-dimensional spatial WM tasks. Here we present a method to isolate sources of spatial error in tasks where participants have to report the spatial location of an item in memory, using two-dimensional mixture models. The method recovers simulated parameters well and is robust to the influence of response distributions and biases, as well as number of nontargets and trials. To demonstrate the model, we fit data from a complex spatial WM task and show the recovered parameters correspond well with previous spatial WM findings and with recovered parameters on a one-dimensional analogue of this task, suggesting convergent validity for this two-dimensional modeling approach. Because the extra dimension allows greater separation of memoranda and responses, spatial tasks turn out to be much better for separating misbinding from imprecision and guessing than one-dimensional tasks. Code for these models is freely available in the MemToolbox2D package and is integrated to work with the commonly used MATLAB package MemToolbox.
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Affiliation(s)
- John P Grogan
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Sean J Fallon
- Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Nahid Zokaei
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Masud Husain
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Elizabeth J Coulthard
- Translational Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- North Bristol NHS Trust, Bristol, UK
| | - Sanjay G Manohar
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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43
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Galeano Weber EM, Keglovits H, Fisher A, Bunge SA. Insights into visual working memory precision at the feature- and object-level from a hemispheric encoding manipulation. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2020; 73:1949-1968. [DOI: 10.1177/1747021820934990] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Mnemonic precision is an important aspect of visual working memory (WM). Here, we probed mechanisms that affect precision for spatial (size) and non-spatial (colour) features of an object, and whether these features are encoded and/or stored separately in WM. We probed precision at the feature-level—that is, whether different features of a single object are represented separately or together in WM—and the object-level—that is, whether different features across a set of sequentially presented objects are represented in the same or different WM stores. By manipulating whether stimuli were encoded by the left and/or right hemisphere, we gained further insights into how objects are represented in WM. At the feature-level, we tested whether recall fidelity for the two features of an object fluctuated in tandem from trial to trial. We observed no significant coupling under either central or lateralized encoding, supporting the claim of parallel feature channels at encoding. At the level of WM storage of a set of objects, we found asymmetric feature interference under central encoding, whereby an increase in colour load led to a decrease in size precision. When objects were encoded by a single hemisphere, however, we found largely independent feature stores. Precision for size was more resistant to interference from the size of another object under right-hemisphere encoding; by contrast, precision for colour did not differ across hemispheres, suggesting a more distributed WM store. These findings suggest that distinct features of a single object are represented separately but are then partially integrated during maintenance of a set of sequentially presented objects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena M Galeano Weber
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California–Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Haley Keglovits
- Department of Psychology, University of California–Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Arin Fisher
- Department of Psychology, University of California–Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Silvia A Bunge
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California–Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of California–Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
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44
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Abstract
The decline of working memory (WM) is a common feature of general cognitive decline, and visual and verbal WM capacity appear to decline at different rates with age. Visual material may be remembered via verbal codes or visual traces, or both. Souza and Skóra, Cognition, 166, 277-297 (2017) found that labeling boosted memory in younger adults by activating categorical visual long-term memory (LTM) knowledge. Here, we replicated this and tested whether it held in healthy older adults. We compared performance in silence, under instructed overt labeling (participants were asked to say color names out loud), and articulatory suppression (repeating irrelevant syllables to prevent labeling) in the delayed estimation paradigm. Overt labeling improved memory performance in both age groups. However, comparing the effect of overt labeling and suppression on the number of coarse, categorical representations in the two age groups suggested that older adults used verbal labels subvocally more than younger adults, when performing the task in silence. Older adults also appeared to benefit from labels differently than younger adults. In younger adults labeling appeared to improve visual, continuous memory, suggesting that labels activated visual LTM representations. However, for older adults, labels did not appear to enhance visual, continuous representations, but instead boosted memory via additional verbal (categorical) memory traces. These results challenged the assumption that visual memory paradigms measure the same cognitive ability in younger and older adults, and highlighted the importance of controlling differences in age-related strategic preferences in visual memory tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alicia Forsberg
- The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
- Department of Psychological Sciences, The University of Missouri, University of Missouri-Columbia, 210 McAlester Hall, Columbia, MO, 65211-2500, USA.
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45
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Wei B, Hao K, Gao L, Tang XS, Zhao Y. A biologically inspired visual integrated model for image classification. Neurocomputing 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neucom.2020.04.081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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46
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The two-stage process in visual working memory consolidation. Sci Rep 2020; 10:13564. [PMID: 32782326 PMCID: PMC7419308 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-70418-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2019] [Accepted: 07/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain the formation manner for visual working memory (VWM) representations during the consolidation process: an all-or-none process hypothesis and a coarse-to-fine process hypothesis. However, neither the all-or-none process hypothesis nor the coarse-to-fine process hypothesis can stipulate clearly how VWM representations are formed during the consolidation process. In the current study, we propose a two-stage process hypothesis to reconcile these hypotheses. The two-stage process hypothesis suggests that the consolidation of coarse information is an all-or-none process in the early consolidation stage, while the consolidation of detailed information is a coarse-to-fine process in the late consolidation stage. By systematically manipulating the encoding time of memory stimuli, we asked participants to memorize one (Experiment 1) or two (Experiment 2) orientations in different encoding time intervals. We found that the memory rate increased linearly as the encoding time increased. More importantly, VWM precision remained constant when the encoding time was short, while the precision increased linearly as the encoding time increased when the encoding time was sufficient. These results supported the two-stage process hypothesis, which reconciles previous conflicting findings in the literature.
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Gold JM, Bansal S, Anticevic A, Cho YT, Repovš G, Murray JD, Hahn B, Robinson BM, Luck SJ. Refining the Empirical Constraints on Computational Models of Spatial Working Memory in Schizophrenia. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY: COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2020; 5:913-922. [PMID: 32741701 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.05.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2019] [Revised: 04/23/2020] [Accepted: 05/07/2020] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Impairments in spatial working memory (sWM) have been well documented in schizophrenia. Here we provide a comprehensive test of a microcircuit model of WM performance in schizophrenia that predicts enhanced effects of increasing delay duration and distractors based on a hypothesized imbalance of excitatory and inhibitory processes. METHODS Model predictions were tested in 41 people with schizophrenia (PSZ) and 32 healthy control subjects (HCS) performing an sWM task. In one condition, a single target location was followed by delays of 0, 2, 4, or 8 seconds. In a second condition, distractors were presented during the 4-second delay interval at 20°, 30°, 40°, 50°, or 90° from the original target location. RESULTS PSZ showed less precise sWM representations than HCS, and the rate of memory drift over time was greater in PSZ than in HCS. Relative to HCS, the spatial recall responses of PSZ were more repelled by distractors presented close to the target location and more attracted by distractors presented far from the target location. The degree of attraction to distant distractors was correlated with the rate of memory drift in the absence of distractors. CONCLUSIONS Consistent with the microcircuit model, PSZ exhibited both a greater rate of drift and greater attraction to distant distractors relative to HCS. These two effects were correlated, consistent with the proposal that they arise from a single underlying mechanism. However, the repulsion effects produced by nearby distractors were not predicted by the model and thus require an updated modeling framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- James M Gold
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
| | - Sonia Bansal
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Alan Anticevic
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Youngsun T Cho
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Grega Repovš
- Department of Psychology, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - John D Murray
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Britta Hahn
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Benjamin M Robinson
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Steven J Luck
- Center for Mind & Brain and Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California
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Abstract
Serial dependence, how immediately preceding experiences bias our current estimations, has been described experimentally during delayed-estimation of many different visual features, with subjects tending to make estimates biased towards previous ones. It has been proposed that these attractive biases help perception stabilization in the face of correlated natural scene statistics, although this remains mostly theoretical. Color, which is strongly correlated in natural scenes, has never been studied with regard to its serial dependencies. Here, we found significant serial dependence in 7 out of 8 datasets with behavioral data of humans (total n = 760) performing delayed-estimation of color with uncorrelated sequential stimuli. Moreover, serial dependence strength built up through the experimental session, suggesting metaplastic mechanisms operating at a slower time scale than previously proposed (e.g. short-term synaptic facilitation). Because, in contrast with natural scenes, stimuli were temporally uncorrelated, this build-up casts doubt on serial dependencies being an ongoing adaptation to the stable statistics of the environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joao Barbosa
- Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Albert Compte
- Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain.
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Zokaei N, Grogan J, Fallon SJ, Slavkova E, Hadida J, Manohar S, Nobre AC, Husain M. Short-term memory advantage for brief durations in human APOE ε4 carriers. Sci Rep 2020; 10:9503. [PMID: 32528115 PMCID: PMC7289888 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-66114-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2019] [Accepted: 05/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The Apolipoprotein-E (APOE) ε4 gene allele, the highest known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, has paradoxically been well preserved in the human population. One possible explanation offered by evolutionary biology for survival of deleterious genes is antagonistic pleiotropy. This theory proposes that such genetic variants might confer an advantage, even earlier in life when humans are also reproductively fit. The results of some small-cohort studies have raised the possibility of such a pleiotropic effect for the ε4 allele in short-term memory (STM) but the findings have been inconsistent. Here, we tested STM performance in a large cohort of individuals (N = 1277); nine hundred and fifty-nine of which included carrier and non-carriers of the APOE ε4 gene, those at highest risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. We first confirm that this task is sensitive to subtle deterioration in memory performance across ageing. Importantly, individuals carrying the APOE ε4 gene actually exhibited a significant memory advantage across all ages, specifically for brief retention periods but crucially not for longer durations. Together, these findings present the strongest evidence to date for a gene having an antagonistic pleiotropy effect on human cognitive function across a wide age range, and hence provide an explanation for the survival of the APOE ε4 allele in the gene pool.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nahid Zokaei
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7JX, UK.
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UD, UK.
| | - John Grogan
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK
| | - Sean James Fallon
- National Institute for Health Research Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospitals Bristol NHS foundation Trust and University of Bristol, Oxford, UK
| | - Ellie Slavkova
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UD, UK
| | - Jonathan Hadida
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7JX, UK
| | - Sanjay Manohar
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK
| | - Anna Christina Nobre
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7JX, UK
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UD, UK
| | - Masud Husain
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UD, UK
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK
- Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford, UK
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50
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Abstract
The storage mechanisms of working memory are the matter of an ongoing debate. The sensory recruitment hypothesis states that memory maintenance and perceptual encoding rely on the same neural substrate. This suggests that the same cortical mechanisms that shape object perception also apply to maintained memory content. We tested this prediction using the Direction Illusion, i.e., the mutual repulsion of two concurrently visible motion directions. Participants memorized the directions of two random dot patterns for later recall. In Experiments 1 and 2, we varied the temporal separation of spatially distinct stimuli to manipulate perceptual concurrency, while keeping concurrency within working memory constant. We observed mutual motion repulsion only under simultaneous stimulus presentation, but proactive repulsion and retroactive attraction under immediate stimulus succession. At inter-stimulus intervals of 0.5 and 2 s, however, proactive repulsion vanished, while the retroactive attraction remained. In Experiment 3, we presented both stimuli at the same spatial position and observed a reappearance of the repulsion effect. Our results indicate that the repulsive mechanisms that shape object perception across space fade during the transition from a perceptual representation to a consolidated memory content. This suggests differences in the underlying structure of perceptual and mnemonic representations. The persistence of local interactions, however, indicates different mechanisms of spatially global and local feature interactions.
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