scholarly journals Object and Spatial Working Memory in Visual Search for Multiple Targets

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena S. Gorbunova ◽  
Kirill S. Kozlov ◽  
Sofia Tkhan Tin Le ◽  
Ivan M. Makarov
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Multiple Targets

scholarly journals Spatial working memory in visual search for multiple targets

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.S. Gorbunova
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Search Efficiency ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Multiple Targets ◽  
Subsequent Search Misses

The article investigated the role of spatial working memory in visual search for multiple targets, in particular, in subsequent search misses effect. This phenomenon is the second target omission after the first target has been found in visual search task. One of the theoretical interpretations of subsequent search misses is the lack of resources (attention and/or working memory) after the first target is found. Experiment investigated dual-target visual search efficiency in standard conditions and with additional spatial working memory load. Additional working memory load did not have any significant impact in multiple target visual search efficiency. The results can due to the role of object, but not spatial working memory in this task. Alternative explanation assumes using special tools and strategies.

scholarly journals Effect of verbal working memory load during the oculomotor activity in visual search

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.B. Velichkovsky ◽  
A.I. Izmalkova
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Visual Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Oculomotor Activity

The structure of working memory has components responsible for the storage of verbal and visualspatial information; despite the fairly detailed study of the functions and mechanisms of their work, the question of their mutual influence is still open. Studies on the verbal working memory load influence on visual search performance (a task requiring the use of visual-spatial working memory resources) it was found that the load on the verbal working memory leads to increased efficiency of target detection. The results of the analysis of oculomotor activity during visual search also point out that the implementation of such tasks under verbal working memory load is accompanied by an increase in cognitive tension and of the degree of search automaticity. The results may indicate the interaction of verbal and visual-spatial working memory components that share non-specific cognitive resources.

Deficits of visual search and spatial working memory after cerebellar infarction

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (S 4) ◽  
Author(s):  
B Machner ◽  
A Sprenger ◽  
D Kömpf ◽  
W Heide
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Cerebellar Infarction

scholarly journals Predictive spatial working memory content guides visual search

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 128-128
Author(s):  
J. J. Kim ◽  
M.-S. Kim ◽  
M. M. Chun
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Content

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.

Attention Mechanisms in Visual Search—An fMRI Study

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (supplement 2) ◽  
pp. 61-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ute Leonards ◽  
Stefan Sunaert ◽  
Paul Van Hecke ◽  
Guy A. Orban
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Extrastriate Cortex ◽  
Integration Theory ◽  
Search Activity ◽  
Efficient Search ◽  
Human Frontal Cortex ◽  
And Performance

The human visual system is usually confronted with many different objects at a time, with only some of them reaching consciousness. Reaction-time studies have revealed two different strategies by which objects are selected for further processing: an automatic, efficient search process, and a conscious, so-called inefficient search [Treisman, A. (1991). Search, similarity, and integration of features between and within dimensions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 17, 652-676; Treisman, A., & Gelade, G. (1980). A feature integration theory of attention. Cognitive Psychology, 12, 97-136; Wolfe, J. M. (1996). Visual search. In H. Pashler (Ed.), Attention. London: University College London Press]. Two different theories have been proposed to account for these search processes. Parallel theories presume that both types of search are treated by a single mechanism that is modulated by attentional and computational demands. Serial theories, in contrast, propose that parallel processing may underlie efficient search, but inefficient searching requires an additional serial mechanism, an attentional “spotlight” (Treisman, A., 1991) that successively shifts attention to different locations in the visual field. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we show that the cerebral networks involved in efficient and inefficient search overlap almost completely. Only the superior frontal region, known to be involved in working memory [Courtney, S. M., Petit, L., Maisog, J. M., Ungerleider, L. G., & Haxby, J. V. (1998). An area specialized for spatial working memory in human frontal cortex. Science, 279, 1347-1351], and distinct from the frontal eye fields, that control spatial shifts of attention, was specifically involved in inefficient search. Activity modulations correlated with subjects' behavior best in the extrastriate cortical areas, where the amount of activity depended on the number of distracting elements in the display. Such a correlation was not observed in the parietal and frontal regions, usually assumed as being involved in spatial attention processing. These results can be interpreted in two ways: the most likely is that visual search does not require serial processing, otherwise we must assume the existence of a serial searchlight that operates in the extrastriate cortex but differs from the visuospatial shifts of attention involving the parietal and frontal regions.

Predictive spatial working memory content guides visual search

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 574-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jangjin Kim ◽  
Min-Shik Kim ◽  
Marvin M. Chun
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Content

scholarly journals Individual Differences in Working Memory and the N2pc

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane W. Couperus ◽  
Kirsten O. Lydic ◽  
Juniper E. Hollis ◽  
Jessica L. Roy ◽  
Amy R. Lowe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Search Performance ◽  
Additional Support

The lateralized ERP N2pc component has been shown to be an effective marker of attentional object selection when elicited in a visual search task, specifically reflecting the selection of a target item among distractors. Moreover, when targets are known in advance, the visual search process is guided by representations of target features held in working memory at the time of search, thus guiding attention to objects with target-matching features. Previous studies have shown that manipulating working memory availability via concurrent tasks or within task manipulations influences visual search performance and the N2pc. Other studies have indicated that visual (non-spatial) vs. spatial working memory manipulations have differential contributions to visual search. To investigate this the current study assesses participants' visual and spatial working memory ability independent of the visual search task to determine whether such individual differences in working memory affect task performance and the N2pc. Participants (n = 205) completed a visual search task to elicit the N2pc and separate visual working memory (VWM) and spatial working memory (SPWM) assessments. Greater SPWM, but not VWM, ability is correlated with and predicts higher visual search accuracy and greater N2pc amplitudes. Neither VWM nor SPWM was related to N2pc latency. These results provide additional support to prior behavioral and neural visual search findings that spatial WM availability, whether as an ability of the participant's processing system or based on task demands, plays an important role in efficient visual search.

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