Dissociated Mechanisms of Extracting Perceptual Information into Visual Working Memory

Abstract

BackgroundThe processing mechanisms of visual working memory (VWM) have been extensively explored in the recent decade. However, how the perceptual information is extracted into VWM remains largely unclear. The current study investigated this issue by testing whether the perceptual information was extracted into VWM via an integrated-object manner so that all the irrelevant information would be extracted (object hypothesis), or via a feature-based manner so that only the target-relevant information would be extracted (feature hypothesis), or via an analogous processing manner as that in visual perception (analogy hypothesis).Methodology/Principal FindingsHigh-discriminable information which is processed at the parallel stage of visual perception and fine-grained information which is processed via focal attention were selected as the representatives of perceptual information. The analogy hypothesis predicted that whereas high-discriminable information is extracted into VWM automatically, fine-grained information will be extracted only if it is task-relevant. By manipulating the information type of the irrelevant dimension in a change-detection task, we found that the performance was affected and the ERP component N270 was enhanced if a change between the probe and the memorized stimulus consisted of irrelevant high-discriminable information, but not if it consisted of irrelevant fine-grained information.Conclusions/SignificanceWe conclude that dissociated extraction mechanisms exist in VWM for information resolved via dissociated processes in visual perception (at least for the information tested in the current study), supporting the analogy hypothesis.

Coarse-to-Fine Construction for High-Resolution Representation in Visual Working Memory

“…The current finding of coarse-to-fine processing for high-resolution representations was also supported by the results of our recent behavioral and ERP studies [53], [54], [55], [56], [57]. If coarse-to-fine processing takes place, coarse information can be encoded without accompanying detailed information, but not vice versa.…”

Visual Working Memory Capacity Does Not Modulate the Feature-Based Information Filtering in Visual Working Memory

“…To achieve this goal, in two experiments we examined whether the filtering of the two types of task-irrelevant information (i.e., the high-discriminable feature versus the fine-grained feature) was different in the low-capacity and the high-capacity group. Contrast to the prediction that VWM capacity modulated the feature-based filtering, we replicated our previous findings in both the low-capacity and the high-capacity groups [16]. That is, the irrelevant high-discriminable information was extracted into VWM involuntarily, whereas the irrelevant fine-grained information was filtered out regardless of VWM capacity.…”

“…As revealed in our previous study [16], the latency of N270 was earlier in the current experiment than in Experiment 1 for the current experiment was easier than Experiment 1. A time window of 200–290 ms was used in the mixed ANOVA to test the effect of Change-type and Group.…”

Object-based encoding in visual working memory: A life span study

“…In the current study, we explored another new aspect of VWM development: objectbased encoding (OBE) in VWM. It is an important processing phenomenon which has been consistently observed in recent studies assessing young adult samples (e.g., Gao, Gao, Li, Sun, & Shen, 2011;Z. Gao, Li, Yin, & Shen, 2010;Hyun, Woodman, Vogel, Hollingworth, & Luck, 2009;Xu, 2010;Yin, Zhou et al, 2012;Zhou et al, 2012).…”