Different effects of executive and visuospatial working memory on visual consciousness.
Consciousness and working memory are two widely studied cognitive phenomena. Although they have been closely tied on a theoretical and neural level, empirical work that investigates their relation is largely lacking. In this study, the relationship between visual consciousness and different working memory components is investigated by using a dual-task paradigm. More specifically, while participants were performing a visual detection task to measure their visual awareness threshold, they had to concurrently perform either an executive or visuospatial working memory task. We hypothesized that visual consciousness would be hindered depending on the type and the size of the load in working memory. Results showed that maintaining visuospatial content in working memory hinders visual awareness, irrespective of the amount of information maintained. By contrast, the detection threshold was progressively affected under increasing executive load. Interestingly, increasing executive load had a generic effect on detection speed, calling into question whether its obstructing effect is specific to the visual awareness threshold. Together, these results indicate that visual consciousness depends differently on executive and visuospatial working memory.
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.
Esther
E
De Loof
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.
Louise
L
Poppe
Consciousness, Cognition & Computation Group, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.|Center for Research on Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 F.-D. Rooseveltlaan CP191, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium.|ULB Neurosciences Institute (UNI), Brussels, Belgium.
Axel
A
Cleeremans
Center for Research on Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 F.-D. Rooseveltlaan CP191, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium.|ULB Neurosciences Institute (UNI), Brussels, Belgium.
Wim
W
Gevers
Consciousness, Cognition & Computation Group, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium. filip.vanopstal1@gmail.com.|Center for Research on Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 F.-D. Rooseveltlaan CP191, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium. filip.vanopstal1@gmail.com.|ULB Neurosciences Institute (UNI), Brussels, Belgium. filip.vanopstal1@gmail.com.
Filip
F
Van Opstal
D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
Consciousness; Continuous flash suppression; Dual-task performance; Visual awareness; Working memory