Action consequences guide the use of visual working memory.

Abstract

Visual working memory (VWM) is a store for temporary maintenance of visual information. It is often disregarded, though, that information is typically stored to enable actions. Therefore, the context of these actions is of great importance for how VWM is used. Here, we questioned whether the severity of the consequence of an action might affect how well information is memorized, and how cautiously it is utilized. We employed an (online) copying task, in which participants reproduced an example display comprised of six items in a grid, using a pool of items. Crucially, we manipulated the severity of penalties: participants had to wait 5 (high) or 0.5 (low error cost) s after an error. Additionally, we manipulated the accessibility of taskrelevant information (a well-studied manipulation in this paradigm): participants had to wait 5 (high) or 0.5 (low sampling cost) s to inspect the example. Our results show that with higher error cost the number of inspections remained comparable, but the number of errors decreased. Furthermore, they show that with higher sampling cost the number of inspections halved, and the number of errors increased. Thus, more severe action consequences increase the reluctance to act on uncertain information in VWM, but do not lead to more attempts to store information in VWM. We conclude that, in contrast to the effect of the accessibility of information, action consequences do not affect how well information is memorized, but affect how cautiously this stored information is utilized.

Just-in-Time Encoding Into Visual Working Memory Is Contingent Upon Constant Availability of External Information

“…Therefore, VWM can be regarded as being part of a dynamic system that constantly weighs the costs of maintaining a (high) memory load against the costs of external sampling. Indeed, consistent with the example of a jigsaw puzzle, several studies have found participants to minimally utilize VWM in many circumstances where information could be retrieved just-in-time from the environment instead (Ballard et al, 1995;Böing et al, 2023;Draschkow et al, 2021;Droll & Hayhoe, 2007;Gajewski & Henderson, 2005;Gray et al, 2006;Hayhoe et al, 2003;Inamdar & Pomplun, 2003;Melnik et al, 2018;Risko & Dunn, 2015;Risko & Gilbert, 2016;Sahakian et al, 2023Sahakian et al, , 2024Somai et al, 2020;Triesch et al, 2003). In this just-in-time approach, external information is only fixated and encoded into memory if and when it is needed for the task at hand, instead of being processed (and memorized) in advance (Droll & Hayhoe, 2007;Hayhoe et al, 2003).…”