What Belongs Together Retrieves Together – The Role of Perceptual Grouping in Stimulus-Response Binding and Retrieval

Abstract

Nowadays there is consensus that stimulus and response features are partially represented in the same coding format furthering the binding of these features into event files. If some or all features comprised in an event file repeat later, the whole file can be retrieved thereby modulating ongoing performance (leading to so-called stimulus-response binding effects). Stimulus-response binding effects are usually investigated in sequential priming paradigms where it is assumed that binding occurs in the prime and retrieval in the probe. Importantly, binding and retrieval are not exclusive for targets but also apply to distractor stimuli. A previous study showed that distractor-binding effects were affected by perceptual grouping: Binding effects were significantly larger when stimuli were grouped compared to ungrouped stimuli. Recent theorizing suggests that binding and retrieval are two separate processes that can be individually modulated. Against this background, it is not possible to pinpoint the modulating influence of perceptual grouping on either process at this point in time. Therefore, we adapted the previous study design in two experiments to observe the effect of perceptual grouping on both processes in isolation. Results indicate that perceptual grouping did not impact binding but retrieval: Distractor-response retrieval was reduced when target and distractor were presented in separate objects. Our results thus support recent theorizing on the separation of binding and retrieval.

Predictability reduces event file retrieval

“…Given the ample evidence from the visual search literature, we suggest that predictability modulates event file retrieval via attention. This observation fits also well with other findings that retrieval is particularly sensitive to manipulations of attention (Ihrke et al, 2011 ; Schmalbrock et al, 2022 ; Schmalbrock & Frings, 2022 ). Several mechanisms might come into play here.…”

Binding between Responses is not Modulated by Grouping of Response Effects

“…Also regarding temporal grouping, a difference from previous studies on stimulus grouping in binding is that in most instances, stimuli shared a common onset (Frings & Rothermund, 2011;Giesen & Rothermund, 2011;Schmalbrock et al, 2022; but see Laub et al, 2018), while in our study, the effect onsets were asynchronous, as they were dependent on response execution. We attempted to alleviate this asynchrony by making the effect of R1 stay on screen during the performance of R2 and the consequent R2 effect presentation.…”

Towards a systematization of brain oscillatory activity in actions

“…Crucially, the event-file concept is neither restricted to working memory or long-term memory processes. It reflects a structure containing episodic information 15 modulated by attentional processes 6,115,116 . There is a prominent role of ABA synchronization and desynchronization processes in episodic memory retrieval 98 .…”