Interference between object-based attention and object-based memory.
Research has shown that there are at least two kinds of visual selective attention: location based and object based. In the present study, we sought to determine the locus of spatially invariant object-based selection using a dual-task paradigm. In four experiments, observers performed an attention task (object feature report or visual search) with a concurrent memory task (object memory or spatial memory). Object memory was interfered with more by a concurrent object-based attention task than by a concurrent location-based attention task. However, this interference pattern was reversed for spatial memory, with greater interference by a location-based attention task than by an object-based attention task. These findings suggest that object-based attention and location-based attention are functionally dissociable and that some forms of object-based selection operate within visual short-term memory.
Matsukura
Michi
M
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA. michi-matsukura@uiowa.edu
Vecera
Shaun P
SP
D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011601:Psychophysics; D012153:Retention, Psychology