Further studies on the role of attention and stimulus repetition in item-item binding processes in visual working memory.

Abstract

A fundamental question for human memory research relates to the role of attention during the binding of distinct components into an integrated representation. A number of important differences exist between the working memory and episodic memory literature in terms of methodological implementation and empirical outcomes. For instance, episodic memory studies indicate that, although divided attention reduces performance, the magnitude of this reduction is similar regardless of whether distinct item components or the associative binding between these components is tested (e.g., Naveh-Benjamin, Guez, & Marom, 2003). In contrast, recent examinations of working memory indicate that reductions in performance under divided attention are larger during tests of item-item binding compared with item tests (Peterson & Naveh-Benjamin, 2017). The current study used methods typical of both episodic and working memory paradigms to further examine the role of attention in item-item binding in visual working memory. Faces and scenes used to create face-scene pairs were either sampled with replacement (i.e., repeated across trials as is typical in working memory experiments) or without replacement (i.e., nonrepeated across trials as is typical in episodic memory experiments) to examine visual working memory performance under parametric variation of concurrent load. Results from Experiment 1 (no load, articulatory suppression) and Experiment 2 (articulatory suppression, backward counting by two) revealed greater reductions in item-item binding relative to single item performance under divided attention regardless of whether item components were repeated or not repeated across trials of each experiment. These results provide further evidence that visual working memory binding requires attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).