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. 2020 Jun;82(3):1290-1303.
doi: 10.3758/s13414-019-01839-9.

Visual working memory load does not eliminate visuomotor repetition effects

Jason Rajsic  1 , Matthew D Hilchey  2 , Geoffrey F Woodman  3 , Jay Pratt  2
Affiliations

Visual working memory load does not eliminate visuomotor repetition effects

Jason Rajsic et al. Atten Percept Psychophys. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

When we respond to a stimulus, our ability to quickly execute this response depends on how combinations of stimulus and response features match to previous combinations of stimulus and response features. Some kind of memory representations must be underlying these visuomotor repetition effects. In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that visual working memory stores the stimulus information that gives rise to these effects. Participants discriminated the colors of successive stimuli while holding either three locations or colors in visual working memory. If visual working memory maintains the information about a previous event that leads to visuomotor repetition effects, then occupying working memory with colors or locations should selectively disrupt color-response and location-response repetition effects. The results of two experiments showed that neither color nor spatial memory load eliminated visuomotor repetition effects. Since working memory load did not disrupt repetition effects, it is unlikely that visual working memory resources are used to store the information that underlies visuomotor repetitions effects. Instead, these results are consistent with the view that visuomotor repetition effects stem from automatic long-term memory retrieval, but can also be accommodated by supposing separate buffers for visual working memory and response selection.

Keywords: Memory: visual working and short-term memory; Repetition effects; Visual working memory.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
An illustration of a sample trial from Experiment 1. Stimuli are not drawn to scale. The memory probe array depicts a different location, same color probe.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Second target response times in Experiment 1 as a function of color-response repetition type (horizontal axes), location repetition (gray lines: location repeat, black lines: location switch), memory load (present: solid lines, absent: dashed lines), and load type (color load, left panel, spatial load, right panel). Error bars depict one standard error of the mean.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Target response error rates as a function of memory load and repetition type. Error bars depict one standard error of the mean.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Memory performance following repetition types in Experiment 1. Error bars depict one standard error of the mean.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
An illustration of a sample trial from Experiment 2. Stimuli are not drawn to scale. The first event of each trial was either Remember or Ignore. The memory probe array depicts a different location, same color probe.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Second target response times in Experiment 2 as a function of color-response repetition type (horizontal axes), location repetition (gray lines: location repeat, black lines: location switch), memory load (present: solid lines, absent: dashed lines), and load type (color load, left panel, spatial load, right panel). Error bars depict one standard error of the mean.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
Target response error rate as a function of repetition type and memory load. Error bars depict one standard error of the mean.
Figure 8.
Figure 8.
Memory performance following repetition types in Experiment 2. Error bars depict one standard error of the mean.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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