Attention and binding in visual working memory: Two forms of attention and two kinds of buffer storage

Abstract

We review our research on the episodic buffer in the multicomponent model of working memory (Baddeley, 2000), making explicit the influence of Anne Treisman's work on the way our research has developed. The crucial linking theme concerns binding, whereby the individual features of an episode are combined as integrated representations. We summarize a series of experiments on visual working memory that investigated the retention of feature bindings and individual features. The effects of cognitive load, perceptual distraction, prioritization, serial position, and their interactions form a coherent pattern. We interpret our findings as demonstrating contrasting roles of externally driven and internally driven attentional processes, as well as a distinction between visual buffer storage and the focus of attention. Our account has strong links with Treisman's concept of focused attention and aligns with a number of contemporary approaches to visual working memory.

Keywords: Attention; Visual working memory; Working memory.

Fig. 1

The revised multicomponent model of working memory. From “The Episodic Buffer: A New Component of Working Memory?” by A. D. Baddeley, , Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, p. 421. Copyright 2000 by Elsevier Inc. Adapted with permission

Fig. 2

Schematic of the methodology (illustrating the binding condition) and proportions correct on probe-present trials in different stimulus conditions as a function of serial position (Allen et al., , Exp. 5). The presentation and test phases in the color and shape conditions involved colored squares and unfilled shape outlines, respectively

Fig. 3

(a) Serial position curves showing single-item change detection accuracy for color, shape, and binding as a function of concurrent task load (Allen et al., , Exp. 2), and (b) the mean effect sizes of increased load at each serial position across eight experiments. Effect size was calculated using the bootES package (Kirby & Gerlanc, 2013)

Fig. 4

Schematic illustration of the methodology (see Ueno, Allen, et al., 2011, for full details), and effects of two types of suffix distractor on single-probe change detection for features and bindings (Ueno, Allen, et al., 2011, Exps. 2 and 3a)

Fig. 5

Schematic of the methodology, and proportions of correct cued recall as a function of the item’s serial position (Hu et al., , Exp. 1)

Fig. 6

Effects of different prioritization instructions on serial position curves in cued recall (Hu et al., , Exp. 4)

Fig. 7

Effects of prioritization instructions on cued recall of a single item from a series of four colored shapes with articulatory suppression (low load) and with concurrent counting (high load) (Hu et al., 2016)

Fig. 8

Effects of a plausible or an implausible suffix on cued recall of an item as a function of its serial position under prioritization conditions emphasizing primacy or recency (Hu et al., 2014)

Fig. 9

Diagram showing the principal components of visual working memory and their functions. Note that task set refers to the initial setting of perceptual filters to select task-relevant stimuli. Once these are set, stimulus selection is largely obligatory