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. 2021 May;49(4):747-757.
doi: 10.3758/s13421-020-01123-4. Epub 2021 Jan 7.

Effect of attentional selection on working memory for depth in a retro-cueing paradigm

Zhuolun Li  1 , Mengxuan Tong  1 , Shiting Chen  1 , Jiehui Qian  2
Affiliations

Effect of attentional selection on working memory for depth in a retro-cueing paradigm

Zhuolun Li et al. Mem Cognit. 2021 May.

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that the temporary storage and manipulation of depth information (working memory for depth; WMd) is largely different from that of visual information in a 2D context (visual working memory; VWM). Although there has been abundant evidence on VWM showing that cueing a memory item during retention could bias attention to its internal representation and thus improves its memory performance (a retro-cue effect), it is unknown whether such an effect differs for WMd that is nested in a 3D context compared with that in a conventional 2D context. Here, we used a change detection task to investigate the effect of attentional selection on WMd by testing several types of retro-cue. The memory array consisted of items positioned at various stereoscopic depth planes, and a cue was presented during retention. Participants needed to make judgments on whether the depth position of target (one memory item) had changed. Our study showed reliable valid retro-cue benefits but no invalid retro-cue cost, indicating that the relational information may be registered in WMd to prevent a strategical removal of the unattended item. There was also a slight improvement in memory performance for cueing depth order compared with that for cueing other feature dimensions or 2D locations. The attentional effect on memory representation in a 3D context is different from that in a 2D context, and the divergence may suggest the distinctive nature of working memory for depth.

Keywords: Attention; Retro-cue effect; Stereoscopic depth; Working memory.

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