Rapid forgetting prevented by retrospective attention cues.

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that memory performance can be enhanced by a cue which indicates the item most likely to be subsequently probed, even when that cue is delivered seconds after a stimulus array is extinguished. Although such retro-cuing has attracted considerable interest, the mechanisms underlying it remain unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that retro-cues might protect an item from degradation over time. We employed two techniques that previously have not been deployed in retro-cuing tasks. First, we used a sensitive, continuous scale for reporting the orientation of a memorized item, rather than binary measures (change or no change) typically used in previous studies. Second, to investigate the stability of memory across time, we also systematically varied the duration between the retro-cue and report. Although accuracy of reporting uncued objects rapidly declined over short intervals, retro-cued items were significantly more stable, showing negligible decline in accuracy across time and protection from forgetting. Retro-cuing an object’s color was just as advantageous as spatial retro-cues. These findings demonstrate that during maintenance, even when items are no longer visible, attention resources can be selectively redeployed to protect the accuracy with which a cued item can be recalled over time, but with a corresponding cost in recall for uncued items.

Setting and changing feature priorities in visual short-term memory

“…In these studies, colored retrocues identified one of several colored objects held in memory and participants reproduced their orientation (Heuer & Schubö, 2016;Li & Saiki, 2015;Pertzov et al, 2013). The observed advantage of valid retro-cues was comparable to that of spatial retro-cues in terms of its time course and the size of the effect (Pertzov et al, 2013), although it had a different spatial profile (Heuer & Schubö, 2016). Nevertheless, observers may have used the feature retro-cue to guide spatial attention to the remembered item's location (cf.…”

“…Nevertheless, observers may have used the feature retro-cue to guide spatial attention to the remembered item's location (cf. Pertzov et al, 2013). We meticulously designed our stimuli to pre-empt any spatial strategy to solve the task.…”

“…Non-spatial retro-cues may also result in benefits for memory performance (Heuer & Schubö, 2016;Lepsien & Nobre, 2007;Li & Saiki, 2015;Pertzov, Bays, Joseph, & Husain, 2013), suggesting that attention can influence VSTM maintenance across many flavors of attention. Most of these studies (Heuer & Schubö, 2016;Li & Saiki, 2015;Pertzov et al, 2013) have shown that colored retro-cues can improve memory for items of the same color.…”

“…Most of these studies (Heuer & Schubö, 2016;Li & Saiki, 2015;Pertzov et al, 2013) have shown that colored retro-cues can improve memory for items of the same color. However, these studies Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.3758/s13423-016-1094-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.…”

“…It remains unclear, therefore, whether selection in memory was based on spatial attention, drawn to the location of an object of a particular color (cf. Pertzov et al, 2013), or, alternatively, whether feature-based attention (FBA) -independently of space -affects memory maintenance. Moreover, few studies (if any) have addressed the interplay of external and internal attention.…”