Supraliminal but not subliminal distracters bias working memory recall.

Abstract

Information of which observers are not consciously aware can nevertheless influence perceptual processes. Whether subliminal information might exert an influence on working memory (WM) representations is less clear, and relatively few studies have examined the interactions between subliminal and supraliminal information in WM. We present 3 experiments examining this issue. Experiments 1a and b replicated the finding that orientation stimuli can influence behavior subliminally in a visuomotor priming task. Experiments 2 and 3 used the same orientation stimuli, but participants had to remember a target orientation and report it back by adjusting a probe orientation after a memory delay. Before or after presentation of the target orientation, a subliminal or supraliminal distracter orientation was presented that was either irrelevant for task completion and never had to be reported (Experiment 2), or was relevant for task completion because it had to be reported on some trials (Experiment 3). In both experiments, presentation of a supraliminal distracter influenced WM recall of the target orientation. When the distracter was presented subliminally, however, there was no bias in orientation recall. These results suggest that information stored in WM is protected from influences of subliminal stimuli, while online information processing is modulated by subliminal information.

Lateralized alpha oscillations are irrelevant for the behavioral retro-cueing benefit in visual working memory

“…Moreover, the representation of the relevant item was systematically biased toward the irrelevant item, although this bias was not affected by the retro-cue. Similar attractive biases have been reported in previous studies (Rademaker et al, 2015;Wildegger et al, 2015). Together, these results demonstrate that participants were able to use the retro-cue to prioritize memorization of the relevant item, and that the irrelevant item nonetheless exerted a distractive influence on that memory representation.…”

Two types of serial dependence in visual working memory

“…They found that S2 was attracted towards S1 with an increased bias for more dissimilar stimuli. Wildegger, Myers, Humphreys, and Nobre () manipulated near‐threshold presentation durations of orientation stimuli (S1). They found that a clearly visible S2 was attracted towards a supraliminal S1 only.…”

Concurrent visual working memory bias in sequential integration of approximate number

“…For instance, when actively maintaining a red item in WM while searching for a target shape, response times are slowed when a red distractor is present in the search array 1,2 , indicating attentional capture by perceptual input that matches the concurrent WM content [1][2][3][4] . WM-perception interactions have also been found to occur in the opposite direction, such that intervening stimuli can bias memory recall of concurrently maintained material [5][6][7][8] . Findings of this type have often been interpreted as evidence that WM storage recruits early sensory processes similar to those involved in perception of actual physical input [9][10][11][12][13] .…”