Is the binding of visual features in working memory resource-demanding?
- 1 January 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
- Vol. 135 (2), 298-313
- https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.135.2.298
Abstract
The episodic buffer component of working memory is assumed to play a role in the binding of features into chunks. A series of experiments compared memory for arrays of colors or shapes with memory for bound combinations of these features. Demanding concurrent verbal tasks were used to investigate the role of general attentional processes, producing load effects that were no greater on memory for feature combinations than for the features themselves. However, the binding condition was significantly less accurate with sequential rather than simultaneous presentation, especially for items earlier in the sequence. The findings are interpreted as evidence of a relatively automatic but fragile visual feature binding mechanism in working memory. Implications for the concept of an episodic buffer are discussed.Keywords
Funding Information
- Medical Research Council (G9423916)
This publication has 39 references indexed in Scilit:
- Automatic and controlled processing in sentence recall: The role of long-term and working memoryJournal of Memory and Language, 2004
- Visual Search Does Not Remain Efficient When Executive Working Memory Is WorkingPsychological Science, 2004
- “Nonparametric”A’ and other modern misconceptions about signal detection theoryPsychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2003
- A Cortical Mechanism for Binding in Visual Working MemoryJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2001
- Memory for serial order: A network model of the phonological loop and its timing.Psychological Review, 1999
- The primacy model: A new model of immediate serial recall.Psychological Review, 1998
- MEM: Mechanisms of RecollectionJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 1992
- The Attention System of the Human BrainAnnual Review of Neuroscience, 1990
- Oscillatory responses in cat visual cortex exhibit inter-columnar synchronization which reflects global stimulus propertiesNature, 1989
- Independence of memory for categorically different colors and shapesPerception & Psychophysics, 1986