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Vol.28 No.3

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The Effect of Target Memory Load on Attentional Focusing in Visual Search

The Korean Journal of Cognitive and Biological Psychology / The Korean Journal of Cognitive and Biological Psychology, (P)1226-9654; (E)2733-466X
2016, v.28 no.3, pp.563-584
https://doi.org/10.22172/cogbio.2016.28.3.009


& (2016). The Effect of Target Memory Load on Attentional Focusing in Visual Search. The Korean Journal of Cognitive and Biological Psychology, 28(3), 563-584, https://doi.org/10.22172/cogbio.2016.28.3.009

Abstract

Few studies have examined the influence of target memory load on focusing attention during visual search. The present study examined the effect of VWM load imposed according either to the number of potential target items or to the number of their features by measuring P3 component supposedly reflecting the intensity of focused attention during visual search. In each trial, participants reported presence or absence of a target on a search array after memorizing two colored orientation bars that were provided as target-informative cues ahead of the search array. Across the trials, either the orientations or the colors of the bars, or both were manipulated to be the same or different, and thus the memory load from the target-informative cues in each trial was assumed to increase from one to two items according to the number of cue items whereas one to four features according to the total number of features on the cue items. When compared between these two alternative assumptions, the increase in P3 amplitude was better explained according to the item-load than the feature-load assumption. The results indicate that increasing memory load for potential search targets can impair focusing of attention during visual search where the degree of memory load varies according to the number of potential target items rather than the total number of features in the targets.

keywords
시각탐색, 초점주의, P3, 시각작업기억, 기억부담, Visual search, focused attention, P3, Visual working memory(VWM), Memory load

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