Abstract
BackgroundThe limited capacity of visual working memory (VWM) requires us to select the task relevant information and filter out the irrelevant information efficiently. Previous studies showed that the individual differences in VWM capacity dramatically influenced the way we filtered out the distracters displayed in distinct spatial-locations: low-capacity individuals were poorer at filtering them out than the high-capacity ones. However, when the target and distracting information pertain to the same object (i.e., multiple-featured object), whether the VWM capacity modulates the feature-based filtering remains unknown.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe explored this issue mainly based on one of our recent studies, in which we asked the participants to remember three colors of colored-shapes or colored-landolt-Cs while using two types of task irrelevant information. We found that the irrelevant high-discriminable information could not be filtered out during the extraction of VWM but the irrelevant fine-grained information could be. We added 8 extra participants to the original 16 participants and then split the overall 24 participants into low- and high-VWM capacity groups. We found that regardless of the VWM capacity, the irrelevant high-discriminable information was selected into VWM, whereas the irrelevant fine-grained information was filtered out. The latter finding was further corroborated in a second experiment in which the participants were required to remember one colored-landolt-C and a more strict control was exerted over the VWM capacity.Conclusions/SignificanceWe conclude that VWM capacity did not modulate the feature-based filtering in VWM.
Highlights
Visual working memory (VWM) is one of the most critical modules in our information processing system, yet it only maintains a very limited amount of information [1,2,3,4,5]
Planned contrast based on all participants showed that the accuracy of irrelevant change (95%) was significantly lower than no change [97%; F(1,23) = 5.94, p,0.025, partialg2 = 0.21, v = 0.65]
Group as the between-subject factor to examine the effect of irrelevant change. It revealed a significant main effect of Changetype [F(1,22) = 16.46, p = 0.001, partialg2 = 0.43, v = 0.97], yet neither the main effect of Group [F(1,22),1, p.0.40, partialg2 = 0.02, v = 0.11] nor the Group6Change-type interaction [F(1,22),1, p.0.40, partialg2 = 0.02, v = 0.11] was significant. These results suggested that a significant N270 was evoked by the irrelevant change, and it was not modulated by the visual working memory (VWM) capacity
Summary
Visual working memory (VWM) is one of the most critical modules in our information processing system, yet it only maintains a very limited amount of information [1,2,3,4,5]. Only at most 3,4 simple objects could be retained in VWM at a time [1,6,7,8,9,10] This limit-capacity requires that while efficiently selecting the task relevant information, we should filter out the task irrelevant information [11]. When multiple features share the same spatial location in an object (e.g., colored shapes), how VWM filters the irrelevant information (i.e., feature-based filtering) remains largely unclear. We explored this issue by focusing on whether the feature-based filtering mechanism was modulated by VMW capacity. The limited capacity of visual working memory (VWM) requires us to select the task relevant information and filter out the irrelevant information efficiently. When the target and distracting information pertain to the same object (i.e., multiple-featured object), whether the VWM capacity modulates the featurebased filtering remains unknown
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