Abstract
Visual working memory (VWM) is a cognitive memory buffer for temporarily holding, processing, and manipulating visual information. Previous studies have demonstrated mixed results of the effect of depth perception on VWM, with some showing a beneficial effect while others not. In this study, we employed an adapted change detection paradigm to investigate the effects of two depth cues, binocular disparity and relative size. The memory array consisted of a set of pseudo-randomly positioned colored items, and the task was to judge whether the test item was changed compared to the memory item after a retention interval. We found that presenting the items in stereoscopic depth alone hardly affected VWM performance. When combining the two coherent depth cues, a significant larger VWM capacity of the perceptually closer-in-depth items was observed than that of the farther items, but the capacity for the two-depth-planes condition was not significantly different from that for the one-plane condition. Conflicting the two depth cues resulted in cancelling the beneficial effect of presenting items at a closer depth plane. The results indicate that depth perception could affect VWM, and the visual system may have an advantage in maintaining closer-in-depth objects in working memory.
Highlights
Visual working memory (VWM) is a cognitive memory buffer for temporarily holding, processing, and manipulating visual information
By combining the binocular disparity and the monocular relative size cues, we investigated whether making depth perception more salient could clarify the effect of depth on VWM
For the crossed- and uncrossed-disparity conditions the results from the front plane were compared with that from the back plane using 2 × 2 repeated-measures ANOVA, and the average accuracy of these two depth planes was compared with the results from the one-plane condition using 2 × 2 mixed-design ANOVA
Summary
Visual working memory (VWM) is a cognitive memory buffer for temporarily holding, processing, and manipulating visual information. The results indicate that depth perception could affect VWM, and the visual system may have an advantage in maintaining closer-in-depth objects in working memory. Visual working memory (VWM) is often considered as a cognitive memory buffer for the ‘online’ processing of visual information. It is crucial for visual perception and cognition, e.g., helping to maintain perceptual stability across discontinuation and variations in retinal image as a result of eye, head or body movements. Studies show that if visual information is properly chunked or grouped, VWM could be enhanced[9,10,11,12] Perceptual grouping, such as Gestalt principles, could make grouped objects appear to ‘belong together’, be processed and stored as a whole.
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