Recall cues interfere with retrieval from visuospatial working memory.

ABSTRACT: Visuospatial working memory allows us to hold multiple visual objects over short delays. It is typically tested by presenting an array of objects, then after a delay showing a 'probe' indicating which memory item to recall or reproduce by adjusting a target feature. However, recent studies demonstrate that information at the time of probe can disrupt recall. Here, in three experiments we test whether traditional memory probes, which contain features that compete with the feature to be recalled, may themselves interfere with performance. We asked participants to report the direction of one of the several coloured arrows in memory, based on its colour. First, we demonstrate that recall is better when the probe is initially just a coloured dot, rather than a coloured arrow which has to be adj

SUBMITTER: Tabi YA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6590415 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature