Visual Marking is Independent of Working Memory

Visual marking is one of the mechanisms contributing to efficient processing of visual information, by deprioritizing visual attention for old items irrelevant to the behavioral goals. In other words, when some of the distractors were previewed, the search was faster than when the whole stimuli set was presented at a time, and this enhancement in search efficiency was named ‘gap effect' or ‘preview effect' by Watson and Humphreys (1997). In this study, it was investigated whether working memory affected the preview effect visual marking draws. Experiment 1 examined whether the preview effect was decreased by performing non-spatial visual working memory task as the number of previewed items increased. Experiment 2 tested whether the preview effect was affected by visuo-spatial working memory load and experiment 3 tested whether the preview effect was affected by executive working memory load. The results showed all three types of working memory load did not interfere with the preview effect. Visual marking can be considered to be independent of working memory system and it does not seem to consume cognitive resources relating working memory. Based on these results, we discussed spatial inhibition and temporal grouping hypotheses.

keywords: 시각적 표시, 작업기억, 선제시 효과, visual marking, working memory, preview effect, visual marking, working memory, preview effect

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Article Contents

Vol.17 No.4

Visual Marking is Independent of Working Memory

Abstract

Reference

The Korean Journal of Cognitive and Biological Psychology