Abstract
Using the prime–probe comparison paradigm, Jacob, Breitmeyer, and Treviño (2013) demonstrated that information processing in visual short-term memory (VSTM) proceeds through three stages: sensory visible persistence (SVP), nonvisible informational persistence (NIP), and visual working memory (VWM). To investigate the effect of increasing the memory load on these stages by using 1, 3, and 5 display items, measures of VSTM performance, including storage, storage-slopes, and scan-slopes, were obtained. Results again revealed three stages of VSTM processing, but with the NIP stage increasing in duration as memory load increased, suggesting a need, during the NIP stage, for transfer and encoding delays of information into VWM. Consistent with this, VSTM scan-slopes, in ms/item, were lowest during the first NIP stage, highest during the second NIP stage, and intermediate during the third, non-sensory VWM stage. The results also demonstrated a color-superiority effect, as all VSTM scan-slopes for color were lower than those for shape and as all VSTM storages for color are greater than those for shape, and the existence of systematic pair-wise correlations between all three measures of VSTM performance. These findings and their implications are related to other paradigms and methods used to investigate post-stimulus processing in VSTM.
Highlights
Before a visual stimulus elicits an observer’s response, its information undergoes transformation as it is transferred through several successive stages of processing until it reaches and is stored in visual working memory (VWM)
The information-processing stages were conceived in terms of different visual short-term memories (VSTMs), in which information processing proceeds from the earliest, sensory memory [1] composed of sensory visible persistence (SVP) lasting about 150 ms [2], followed by a more abstract/nonvisible sensory informational persistence (NIP) that can last from about 500 to 900 ms [3,4,5,6], during which information in turn is encoded into and stored in visual working memory (VWM), whose duration can attain several seconds [7]
The specific aims of our study were: (1) to establish how VSTM storage values, VSTM storage-slope values, and VSTM scan-slope values change over the first two seconds of post-stimulus processing. This time interval spans VSTMs beginning with nonvisible informational persistence (NIP) at the shortest study display-to-probe stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) ranging from 0 to roughly 150 ms, followed by NIP at intermediate SOAs ranging from 150 to about 1000 ms, to and proceeding to VWM at the SOAs exceeding 1000 ms, and (2) to establish how VSTM storage values, VSTM storage-slope values, and VSTM scan-slope values relate to each other
Summary
Before a visual stimulus elicits an observer’s response, its information undergoes transformation as it is transferred through several successive stages of processing until it reaches and is stored in VWM. The information in a visual stimulus must be processed and transferred through SVP and NIP into VWM before a response can be generated. Jacob, Breitmeyer, and Treviño [14] developed a prime–probe comparison task that allowed tracking of these successive stages over the first two seconds of visual processing. At every SOA, the comparison effect was responses than did mismatching trials. The comparison effect fluctuated as prim creased: it was strongest at a prime–probe SOA of 0 ms, declined to a l daanednfinpeSrdOobaAes tmhoeisfdm1ifaf3tec3rheenmdcesabn, edftowcloelreornewcctoeRrdrTescbtoyrbetaaacitnileoodnctwaimlheemns (atRhxTeismp) roiubmtmaeinaenaddt w2phr4oe0bnemthmesap,tcrihinmedet.urn fo Fmiguinreim, audmaptaedt 7fr0o0m mJacso,baent dal.f[i1n4a],lslhyoawslothceaclommpaaxriismonuemffecatst aasna SfuOncAtioonfo1f 200 m pinorcifmreeta-hsteoed-p:criotobwmeaSspOsaAtrr.oiAnsgos ecnsatneabtfefaespecertinm,atehc–erpocroosmbsepSSaOrOisAoAnosfef0fcemoctsrfl,rduecestcuplianoteendddatosepdarliomtcoae-lptmrhoienbeimtShuOrmAee VST act eanssSiOnAgoifn1t3r3omdsu, fcoelldowaebdobvy ea.loIcnaltmhaexfimirusmt satta2g40em, lsa, sintitnurgn 1fo3ll3owmeds baynadloicnaldicated mairneimau, mthaet 7p0r0imms,ea’nsdinfinfaollryma alotciaol nmaaxcimcuummaut laantSeOsA(ionft1e2g00rmatse. sT)heaflsuicttuisatpiornoocf essed tinhthteroceodmsuecpecadoriansbodon,veeNf.feIIcnPt tahscertoafisgrsseSt OsitAnagsdeci,oclraarsettseinpdgon1bd3y3edmtthsoeathnmedtiihndrde-iegcaVrtaSeTdyMbaysrtteahgaeedsinaorfkFpgirgoracuyersaserine1ag, and la thme sp,ritmhee’s(infoorlmoantigoenracvciusmibulaet)esin(ifnotergmrataetsi)oans itpisroprcoecsesseedd iinnSNVPIP[2]u; dnudrienrggthoees tran seincotnod,tNheIPtshtaigredi,ndVicWateMd bsyttahge em;ida-ngrdaydaureraiinngFigthuries1satnadglea,stiinngdaincoattheedr 5b00ymtsh, e ligh the (no longer visible) information processed in NIP undergoes transfer and encoding into thme tahtiirdo,nVWisMalsrtaegaed; ayndstdourriendg tihnisVstaWgeM, in.dWicathedilebytthhee leignhttigrreaysaerqeau, einnfotrimalatVioSn TisM pro aslrteiamdyusltuorseduipn VtoWMth.eWlheivleethl eoefnVtirWe seMqueisntaiacl cVoSmTMppliroscheessdinginofraovuisguhallysti1m0u0lu0s ms, th VumpWtaMottichoaennlelavinsetl sVoefvWVeWraMlMadcisdaaintcioclonamaslptsleisscehoenvddesir.narlouagdhdlyit1i0o0n0 mals,stehceostnordagse. of information in RFepigrinutreed f1ro.mCJoacmobpeat rail.s[o14n], ewfifthecpter(mRiTsspiorno©b2e0m13,isSpmriantgcehr —NaRtuTrep. robe match) as a function
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