Table_1_The Graded Fate of Unattended Stimulus Representations in Visuospatial Working Memory.DOCX

As in visual perception, information can be selected for prioritized processing at the expense of unattended representations in visual working memory (VWM). However, what is not clear is whether and how this prioritization degrades the unattended representations. We addressed two hypotheses. First, the representational quality of unattended items could be degraded as a function of the spatial distance to attended information in VWM. Second, the strength with which an item is bound to its location is degraded as a function of the spatial distance to attended information in VWM. To disentangle these possibilities, we designed an experiment in which participants performed a continuous production task in which they memorized a visual array with colored discs, one of which was spatially retro-cued, informing the target location of an impending probe that was to be recalled (Experiment 1). We systematically varied the spatial distance between the cued and probed locations and obtained model-based estimates of the representational quality and binding strengths at varying cue-probe distances. Although the representational quality of the unattended representations remained unaffected by the cue-probe distance, spatially graded binding strengths were observed, as reflected in more spatial confusions at smaller cue-probe distances. These graded binding strengths were further replicated with a model-free approach in a categorical version of the production task in which stimuli and responses consisted of easily discriminable colors (Experiment 2). These results demonstrate that unattended representations are prone to spatial confusions due to spatial degradation of binding strengths in WM, even though they are stored with the same representational quality.

如同视觉感知中，信息可以在牺牲未注意到的视觉工作记忆（VWM）中的表征的情况下，被选为优先处理。然而，尚不清楚这种优先级是否会以及如何降低未注意到的表征。我们提出了两个假设。首先，未注意到的项的表征质量可能随着其在VWM中与注意信息的空间距离而退化。其次，一项与其位置绑定强度随着其在VWM中与注意信息的空间距离而退化。为了解构这些可能性，我们设计了一项实验，其中参与者执行了一个连续的生产任务，他们需要记住一个带有彩色圆盘的视觉阵列，其中一个圆盘在空间上被回溯提示，告知即将回忆的探针的目标位置（实验1）。我们系统地改变了提示和探针位置之间的空间距离，并获得了在不同提示-探针距离下表征质量和绑定强度的基于模型的估计。尽管未注意到的表征的表征质量未受提示-探针距离的影响，但观察到了空间分级的绑定强度，这反映在较小的提示-探针距离处的更多空间混淆。这些分级的绑定强度在由易于区分的颜色组成的分类版本的生产任务中，通过无模型的方法得到了进一步验证，其中刺激和响应由易于区分的颜色组成（实验2）。这些结果表明，尽管未注意到的表征以相同的表征质量存储，但由于在工作记忆中绑定强度的空间退化，它们容易受到空间混淆的影响。