How visual working memory handles distraction: cognitive mechanisms and electrophysiological correlates

Liesefeld, Heinrich René; Liesefeld, Anna M.; Sauseng, Paul; Jacob, Simon N.; Müller, Hermann J.

doi:10.1080/13506285.2020.1773594

Cited by 37 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 124 publications

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“…This preattentive priority map is thought to be influenced by task goals and experiences (top-down) as well as saliency (bottom-up). We propose that the very same priority map supporting visual search might also determine VWM processing (Bundesen et al, 2011; Liesefeld et al, 2020). Findings from the present study and those manipulating each object’s relevance (e.g., Emrich et al, 2017) can be integrated using the priority-map concept: Although previous studies manipulated top-down influences, we are the first to systematically manipulate bottom-up contributions (i.e., saliency) to preattentive-priority-map activations in a VWM task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Also note that in Liesefeld et al’s (2016) study, even targets with a 12° tilt (the smallest tilt employed in the present study) produced clear pop-out, that is, participants were able to almost exclusively process the target bar and completely ignore the vertical nontarget bars. Thus, the vertical bars are sufficiently less salient than even the 12°-tilted bars, so that they likely do not significantly compete for VWM processing as distractors in other designs would (Liesefeld et al, 2014; Vogel et al, 2005; for a review, see Liesefeld et al, 2020).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Massive Effects of Saliency on Information Processing in Visual Working Memory

Constant

Liesefeld

2021

Psychol Sci

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Limitations in the ability to temporarily represent information in visual working memory (VWM) are crucial for visual cognition. Whether VWM processing is dependent on an object’s saliency (i.e., how much it stands out) has been neglected in VWM research. Therefore, we developed a novel VWM task that allows direct control over saliency. In three experiments with this task (on 10, 31, and 60 adults, respectively), we consistently found that VWM performance is strongly and parametrically influenced by saliency and that both an object’s relative saliency (compared with concurrently presented objects) and absolute saliency influence VWM processing. We also demonstrated that this effect is indeed due to bottom-up saliency rather than differential fit between each object and the top-down attentional template. A simple computational model assuming that VWM performance is determined by the weighted sum of absolute and relative saliency accounts well for the observed data patterns.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Massive Effects of Saliency on Information Processing in Visual Working Memory

Constant

Liesefeld

2021

Psychol Sci

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…This pre-attentive priority map is thought to be influenced by task goals and experiences (top-down) as well as saliency (bottom-up). We propose that the very same priority map supporting visual search might also determine VWM processing (Bundesen et al, 2011;Liesefeld et al, 2020). Findings from the present study and those manipulating each object's relevance (e.g., Emrich et al, 2017) can be integrated using the priority-map concept: while previous studies ma-nipulated top-down influences, we are the first to systematically manipulate bottom-up contributions (i.e., saliency) to pre-attentive priority-map activations in a VWM task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also note that in Liesefeld et al (2016), even the smallest tilt employed in the present study (12°) produced clear pop out, that is, participants were able to almost exclusively process the target bar and completely ignore the vertical non-target bars. Thus, the vertical bars are sufficiently less salient than even the 12°tilted bars, so that they likely do not significantly compete for (VWM) processing as distractors in other designs would (Liesefeld et al, 2014;Vogel et al, 2005; for a review see, Liesefeld et al, 2020).…”

Section: Experiments 1 Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Massive Effects of Saliency on Information Processing in Visual Working Memory

Constant¹,

Liesefeld²

2019

Preprint

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Given its severe capacity limitations, visual working memory (VWM) can process only a tiny fraction of the complex visual world. While selection of relevant information from cluttered scenes is a main topic of research on visual attention, it has not received much research efforts in the VWM community. Based on knowledge from visual-attention research, we develop a task that mimics the complexity of real-world scenes while maintaining tight experimental control over stimulation and allowing for the application of state-of-the-art computational models and neuroscientific techniques. In two experiments, we provide solid evidence that the distribution of a limited VWM resource is parametrically influenced by saliency (i.e., how much an object stands out from its immediate surround). Our third experiment demonstrates that – in contrast to the real world – saliency is virtually maxed out for relevant objects in typical laboratory studies of VWM, likely yielding a pronounced underestimation of this major influence on VWM. We discuss various, not necessarily exclusive, mechanisms by which saliency might influence VWM performance, including saliency-dependent distribution of resources, encoding efficiency and faster/better filtering of unnecessary information and relate our results to the Theory of Visual Attention (TVA).

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“…Bocincova et al (2020) too focus on vWM for the purpose of visual search, but from a modelling perspective, showing that an "off the shelf" model of vWM (Manohar et al, 2019) readily generates biases that mimic attentional guidance effects in visual search. But vWM may also play a central role in biasing attention away from distracting information during encoding, as is argued by Liesefeld et al (2020). These studies provide examples of how different research fields come together in the study of vWM function.…”

Section: From the Past To The Futurementioning

confidence: 77%