Role of aging and working memory in performance on a naturalistic visual search task

Cortex ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmine R. Aziz ◽  
Samantha R. Good ◽  
Raymond M. Klein ◽  
Gail A. Eskes
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task

scholarly journals The role of pre-stimulus alpha oscillation in distractor filtering during a Visual Search task

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 979
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Pastuszak ◽  
Kimron Shapiro ◽  
Simon Hanslmayr
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Alpha Oscillation ◽  
Distractor Filtering

Bottom-up perceptual salience and top-down retro-cues concurrently determine state in visual working memory

2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182096626
Author(s):  
Lingxia Fan ◽  
Lin Zhang ◽  
Liuting Diao ◽  
Mengsi Xu ◽  
Ruiyang Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Salient Feature ◽  
Active State ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Perceptual Salience

Recent studies have demonstrated that in visual working memory (VWM), only items in an active state can guide attention. Further evidence has revealed that items with higher perceptual salience or items prioritised by a valid retro-cue in VWM tend to be in an active state. However, it is unclear which factor (perceptual salience or retro-cues) is more important for influencing the item state in VWM or whether the factors can act concurrently. Experiment 1 examined the role of perceptual salience by asking participants to hold two features with relatively different perceptual salience (colour vs. shape) in VWM while completing a visual search task. Guidance effects were found when either colour or both colour and shape in VWM matched one of the search distractors but not when shape matched. This demonstrated that the more salient feature in VWM can actively guide attention, while the less salient feature cannot. However, when shape in VWM was cued to be more relevant (prioritised) in Experiment 2, we found guidance effects in both colour-match and shape-match conditions. That is, both more salient but non-cued colour and less salient but cued shape could be active in VWM, such that attentional selection was affected by the matching colour or shape in the visual search task. This suggests that bottom-up perceptual salience and top-down retro-cues can jointly determine the active state in VWM.

scholarly journals Sit-and-Wait Strategies in Dynamic Visual Search

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian von Mühlenen ◽  
Hermann J. Müller ◽  
Dagmar Müller
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Inhibition Of Return ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Dynamic Condition ◽  
Static Condition ◽  
Limited Region ◽  
Rule Out

The role of memory in visual search has lately become a controversial issue. Horowitz and Wolfe (1998) observed that performance in a visual search task was little affected by whether the stimuli were static or randomly relocated every 111 ms. Because a memory-based mechanism, such as inhibition of return, would be of no use in the dynamic condition, Horowitz and Wolfe concluded that memory is likewise not involved in the static condition. However, Horowitz and Wolfe could not effectively rule out the possibility that observers adopted a different strategy in the dynamic condition than in the static condition. That is, in the dynamic condition observers may have attended to a subregion of the display and waited for the target to appear there (sit-and-wait strategy). This hypothesis is supported by experimental data showing that performance in their dynamic condition does not differ from performance in another dynamic condition in which observers are forced to adopt a sit-and-wait strategy by being presented with a limited region of the display only.

scholarly journals Concurrent Guidance of Attention by Multiple Working Memory Items: Behavioral and Computational Evidence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cherie Zhou ◽  
Monicque M. Lorist ◽  
Sebastiaan Mathôt
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Behavioral Data ◽  
Drift Diffusion ◽  
Single Item ◽  
Multiple Item

AbstractDuring visual search, task-relevant representations in visual working memory (VWM), known as attentional templates, are assumed to guide attention. A current debate concerns whether only one (Single-Item-Template hypothesis, or SIT) or multiple (Multiple-Item-Template hypothesis, or MIT) items can serve as attentional templates simultaneously. The current study was designed to test these two hypotheses. Participants memorized two colors, prior to a visual-search task in which the target and the distractor could match or not match the colors held in VWM. Robust attentional guidance was observed when one of the memory colors was presented as the target (reduced response times [RTs] on target-match trials) or the distractor (increased RTs on distractor-match trials). We constructed two drift-diffusion models that implemented the MIT and SIT hypotheses, which are similar in their predictions about overall RTs, but differ in their predictions about RTs on individual trials. Critically, simulated RT distributions and error rates revealed a better match of the MIT hypothesis to the observed data than the SIT hypothesis. Taken together, our findings provide behavioral and computational evidence for the concurrent guidance of attention by multiple items in VWM.Significance statementTheories differ in how many items within visual working memory can guide attention at the same time. This question is difficult to address, because multiple- and single-item-template theories make very similar predictions about average response times. Here we use drift-diffusion modeling in addition to behavioral data, to model response times at an individual level. Crucially, we find that our model of the multiple-item-template theory predicts human behavior much better than our model of the single-item-template theory; that is, modeling of behavioral data provides compelling evidence for multiple attentional templates that are simultaneously active.

scholarly journals Can you have multiple attentional templates? Large-scale replications of Van Moorselaar, Theeuwes and Olivers (2014) and Hollingworth and Beck (2016)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcella Frătescu ◽  
Dirk Van Moorselaar ◽  
Sebastiaan Mathôt
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Multiple State ◽  
Bias Attention ◽  
Larger Sample

AbstractStimuli that resemble the content of visual working memory (VWM) capture attention. However, theories disagree on how many VWM items can bias attention simultaneously. The multiple-state account posits a distinction between template and accessory VWM items, such that only a single template item biases attention. In contrast, homogenous-state accounts posit that all VWM items bias attention. Recently, Van Moorselaar et al. (2014) and Hollingworth and Beck (2016) tested these accounts, but obtained seemingly contradictory results. Van Moorselaar et al. (2014) found that a distractor in a visual-search task captured attention more when it matched the content of VWM (memory-driven capture). Crucially, memory-driven capture disappeared when more than one item was held in VWM, in line with the multiple-state account. In contrast, Hollingworth and Beck (2016) found memory-driven capture even when multiple items were kept in VWM, in line with a homogenous-state account. Considering these mixed results, we replicated both studies with a larger sample, and found that all key results are reliable. It is unclear to what extent these divergent results are due to paradigm differences between the studies. We conclude that is crucial to our understanding of VWM to determine the boundary conditions under which memory-driven capture occurs.

A Role for Spatial and Nonspatial Working Memory Processes in Visual Search

2008 ◽  
Vol 55 (5) ◽  
pp. 301-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine J. Anderson ◽  
Sabira K. Mannan ◽  
Geraint Rees ◽  
Petroc Sumner ◽  
Christopher Kennard
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Retention Interval ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Processes ◽  
Task Conditions

Searching a cluttered visual scene for a specific item of interest can take several seconds to perform if the target item is difficult to discriminate from surrounding items. Whether working memory processes are utilized to guide the path of attentional selection during such searches remains under debate. Previous studies have found evidence to support a role for spatial working memory in inefficient search, but the role of nonspatial working memory remains unclear. Here, we directly compared the role of spatial and nonspatial working memory for both an efficient and inefficient search task. In Experiment 1, we used a dual-task paradigm to investigate the effect of performing visual search within the retention interval of a spatial working memory task. Importantly, by incorporating two working memory loads (low and high) we were able to make comparisons between dual-task conditions, rather than between dual-task and single-task conditions. This design allows any interference effects observed to be attributed to changes in memory load, rather than to nonspecific effects related to “dual-task” performance. We found that the efficiency of the inefficient search task declined as spatial memory load increased, but that the efficient search task remained efficient. These results suggest that spatial memory plays an important role in inefficient but not efficient search. In Experiment 2, participants performed the same visual search tasks within the retention interval of visually matched spatial and verbal working memory tasks. Critically, we found comparable dual-task interference between inefficient search and both the spatial and nonspatial working memory tasks, indicating that inefficient search recruits working memory processes common to both domains.

Foggy windows: Pupillary responses during task preparation

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (10) ◽  
pp. 2235-2248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Trani ◽  
Paul Verhaeghen
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Pupil Dilation ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Task Preparation ◽  
Pupillary Responses ◽  
Post Trial

We investigated pupil dilation in 96 subjects during task preparation and during a post-trial interval in a visual search task and an auditory working memory task. Completely informative difficulty cues (easy, medium, or hard) were presented right before task preparation to examine whether pupil dilation indicated advance mobilisation of attentional resources; functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have argued for the existence of such task preparation, and the literature shows that pupil dilation tracks attentional effort during task performance. We found, however, little evidence for such task preparation. In the working memory task, pupil size was identical across cues, and although pupil dilation in the visual search task tracked the cue, pupil dilation predicted subsequent performance in neither task. Pupil dilation patterns in the post-trial interval were more consistent with an effect of emotional reactivity. Our findings suggest that the mobilisation of attentional resources in the service of the task does not occur during the preparatory interval, but is delayed until the task itself is initiated.

scholarly journals The role of configuration and target discriminability in a visual search task

1973 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Pomerantz ◽  
W. R. Garner
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task
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