title: Bindings in working memory: The role of object-based attention.
abstract: Over the past decade, it has been debated whether retaining bindings in working memory (WM) requires more attention than retaining constituent features, focusing on domain-general attention and space-based attention. Recently, we proposed that retaining bindings in WM needs more object-based attention than retaining constituent features (Shen, Huang, & Gao, 2015, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, doi: 10.1037/xhp0000018 ). However, only unitized visual bindings were examined; to establish the role of object-based attention in retaining bindings in WM, more emperical evidence is required. We tested 4 new bindings that had been suggested requiring no more attention than the constituent features in the WM maintenance phase: The two constituent features of binding were stored in different WM modules (cross-module binding, Experiment 1), from auditory and visual modalities (cross-modal binding, Experiment 2), or temporally (cross-time binding, Experiments 3) or spatially (cross-space binding, Experiments 4-6) separated. In the critical condition, we added a secondary object feature-report task during the delay interval of the change-detection task, such that the secondary task competed for object-based attention with the to-be-memorized stimuli. If more object-based attention is required for retaining bindings than for retaining constituent features, the secondary task should impair the binding performance to a larger degree relative to the performance of constituent features. Indeed, Experiments 1-6 consistently revealed a significantly larger impairment for bindings than for the constituent features, suggesting that object-based attention plays a pivotal role in retaining bindings in WM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Xixi Campus, Zhejiang University, Hang Zhou, People's Republic of China, 310007.
authors.forename: Zaifeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Xixi Campus, Zhejiang University, Hang Zhou, People's Republic of China, 310007.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Xixi Campus, Zhejiang University, Hang Zhou, People's Republic of China, 310007.
authors.forename: Fangfang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Xixi Campus, Zhejiang University, Hang Zhou, People's Republic of China, 310007.
authors.forename: Kaifeng
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Xixi Campus, Zhejiang University, Hang Zhou, People's Republic of China, 310007.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Xixi Campus, Zhejiang University, Hang Zhou, People's Republic of China, 310007. mwshen@zju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Mowei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention and memory; Object-based attention; Working memory