The role of attention in the maintenance of feature bindings in visual short-term memory.
This study examined the role of attention in maintaining feature bindings in visual short-term memory. In a change-detection paradigm, participants attempted to detect changes in the colors and orientations of multiple objects; the changes consisted of new feature values in a feature-memory condition and changes in how existing feature values were combined in a binding-memory condition. In the critical experiment, a demanding visual search task requiring sequential shifts of spatial attention was interposed during the delay interval of the change-detection task. If attention is more important for the maintenance of feature bindings than for the maintenance of unbound feature values, the attention-requiring search task should specifically disrupt performance in the binding-memory task. Contrary to this proposal, it was found that memory for bindings and memory for features were equally impaired by the search task.
Johnson
Jeffrey S
JS
Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1407, USA. jeffrey-johnson-2@uiowa.edu
Hollingworth
Andrew
A
Luck
Steven J
SJ
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D014796:Visual Perception