When a Reactivated Visual Mask Disrupts Serial Recall
Evidence That Refreshing Relies on Memory Traces Reactivation in Working Memory
Abstract
Abstract. To prevent forgetting in working memory, the attentional refreshing is supposed to increase the level of activation of memory traces by focusing attention. However, the involvement of memory traces reactivation in refreshing relies in the majority on indirect evidence. The aim of this study was to show that refreshing relies on the reactivation of memory traces by investigating how the reactivation of an irrelevant trace prevents the attentional refreshing to take place, and (2) the memory traces reactivated are sensorial in nature. We used a reactivated visual mask presented during the encoding (Experiment 1) and the refreshing (Experiment 2) of pictures in a complex span task. Results showed impaired serial recall performance in both experiments when the mask was reactivated compared to a control stimulus. Experiment 3 confirmed the refreshing account of these results. We proposed that refreshing relies on the reactivation of sensory memory traces.
References
1984). Exploring the articulatory loop. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 36, 233–252.
(1999).
(The multiple-component model . In A. MiyakeP. ShahEds., Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 28–61). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.1975). Word length and the structure of short-term memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 14, 575–589.
(2004). Time constraints and resource sharing in Adults’ working memory spans. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 83–100. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.133.1.83
(2007). Time and cognitive load in working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33, 570–585. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.33.3.570
(2015). Working memory: Loss and reconstruction. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
(2011). On the law relating processing to storage in working memory. Psychological Review, 118, 175–192. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022324
(2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617–645. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093639
(2014). Working memory: Loss and reconstruction. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
(2009). Two maintenance mechanisms of verbal information in working memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 61, 457–469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2009.06.002
(1999).
(An embedded-process model of working memory . In A. MiyakeP. ShahEds., Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 62–101). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.2005). On the capacity of attention: Its estimation and its role in working memory and cognitive aptitudes. Cognitive Psychology, 51, 42–100.
(2002). The search for what is fundamental in the development of working memory. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 29, 1–49.
(2002). Deconfounding serial recall. Journal of Memory and Language, 46, 153–177. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.2001.2805
(1997). What memory is for: Creating meaning in the service of action. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 20, 41–50.
(2007). The effects of processing time and processing rate on forgetting in working memory: Testing four models of the complex span paradigm. Memory & Cognition, 35, 1675–1684.
(2005). Using fMRI to investigate. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 5, 339–361.
(2012). OpenSesame: An open-source, graphical experiment builder for the social sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 314–324. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-011-0168-7
(2008). The role of covert retrieval in working memory span tasks: Evidence from delayed recall tests. Journal of Memory and Language, 58, 480–494.
(2012). Modeling working memory: An interference model of complex span. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 19, 779–819.
(1971). Imagery and verbal processes. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
(1986). Mental representations: A dual coding approach. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
(2013). Forgetting from working memory: Does novelty encoding matter? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39, 110–125. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028475
(2008). Time-related decay or interference-based forgetting in working memory? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34, 1561–1564. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013356
(2006). Working memory as an emergent property of the mind and brain. Neuroscience, 139, 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2005.06.005
(2016). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
. (2007). Refreshing: A minimal executive function. Cortex, 43, 135–145.
(2015). “The mask who wasn’t there”: Visual masking effect with the perceptual absence of the mask. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41, 567–573.
(2017). The automatic visual simulation of words: A memory reactivated mask slows down conceptual access. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71, 14–22.
(1995). Is there a relationship between task demand and storage space in tests of working memory capacity? The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 48, 108–124.
(2013). The perceptual nature of audiovisual interactions for semantic knowledge in young and elderly adults. Acta Psychologica, 143, 253–260.
(2010a). Do mental processes share a domain-general resource? Psychological Science, 21, 384–390.
(2010b). Verbal and visuo-spatial working memory: A case for domain-general Time-Based Resource Sharing. Psychological Science, 21, 384–390.
(2014). A common short-term memory retrieval rate may describe many cognitive procedures. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 126. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00126
(2015). Attending to items in working memory: Evidence that refreshing and memory search are closely related. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22, 1001–1006. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0755-6
(2014). Act-In: An integrated view of memory mechanisms. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 26, 280–306. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2014.892113
(2001). The case for sensorimotor coding in working memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 44–57.
(