ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理学报 ›› 2020, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (4): 399-413.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2020.00399

• 研究报告 •    下一篇

视觉工作记忆回溯线索效应的产生机制:认知阶段分离

叶超雄1,2, 胡中华1, 梁腾飞1,3, 张加峰4,5, 许茜如1,2, 刘强1()   

  1. 1 四川师范大学脑与心理科学研究院, 成都 610000
    2 于韦斯屈莱大学心理学系, 于韦斯屈莱, 芬兰 40640
    3 辽宁师范大学脑与认知神经研究中心, 大连 116029
    4 中国科学院心理研究所行为科学重点实验室, 北京 100101
    5 中国科学院大学心理学系, 北京 100049
  • 收稿日期:2019-10-27 发布日期:2020-02-25 出版日期:2020-04-25
  • 通讯作者: 刘强 E-mail:lq780614@163.com
  • 基金资助:
    * 国家自然科学基金(31700948)

The mechanism of retro-cue effect in visual working memory: Cognitive phase separation

YE Chaoxiong1,2, HU Zhonghua1, LIANG Tengfei1,3, ZHANG Jiafeng4,5, XU Qianru1,2, LIU Qiang1()   

  1. 1 Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610000, China
    2 Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla 40014, Finland
    3 Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China
    4 CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    5 Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2019-10-27 Online:2020-02-25 Published:2020-04-25
  • Contact: LIU Qiang E-mail:lq780614@163.com

摘要:

以往研究关于视觉工作记忆回溯线索效应的产生机制主要存在5种假设, 目前依然存在争议。本研究通过改进前人研究实验范式, 采用包含内源性回溯线索的颜色回忆报告范式, 进一步对这5种假设进行检验。在实验1中, 我们调控了线索与探测阵列之间的时间间隔, 发现不同时间间隔不影响无线索条件的行为表现, 而在正常线索条件中被试的记忆精度以及能记住的项目数量均优于无线索条件; 在实验2中, 我们对回溯线索伴随的干扰刺激类型进行控制, 结果显示, 在不同条件下记忆精度不存在差别, 但当回溯线索伴随干扰刺激呈现时, 被试能记住的项目数量会被降低, 降低程度受干扰刺激的类型调制; 在实验3中, 我们对伴随回溯线索的干扰刺激的呈现时间进行控制, 发现虽然回溯线索效应仍然存在, 但干扰刺激的呈现时间不会影响效应程度。研究结果表明, 回溯线索的出现使得被试能够在决策加工前完成内部注意资源的再分配, 从而避免了同时进行这两种认知加工与记忆表征维持本身竞争认知资源。本研究为认知阶段分离假设提供了支持证据, 对解决回溯线索效应产生机制的争议以及理解内部注意与视觉工作记忆的关系有重要意义。

关键词: 视觉工作记忆, 回溯线索效应, 认知阶段分离假设, 内部注意, 回忆报告范式

Abstract:

Retro-cue effect (RCE) refers to the phenomenon that individuals can use retro-cues to improve their visual working memory (VWM) performance of target items after the disappearance of memory targets. To explain the mechanism of RCE in VWM, five different hypotheses have been proposed by previous studies: the hypothesis of enhancing target representations, the hypothesis of forgetting non-target representations, the hypothesis of preventing memory degradation, the hypothesis of preventing interference from probe array and the hypothesis of cognitive phase separation. Although RCE has been repeatedly observed in previous studies, the mechanism of RCE remains unclear. In this study, we conducted three experiments to test these hypotheses.

In Experiment 1, participants were asked to memorize four colors in a recall task. They needed to recall the color of the target item when the probe array presented. There are three experimental conditions, the normal cue condition, the short interval no-cue condition, and the long interval no-cue condition. In the normal cue condition, a memory array (four colored squares) presented for 200 ms. Then, the memory array disappeared for 450 ms and a retro-cue presented, followed by a 900 ms blank. Then the probe array presented. In the short interval no-cue condition and long interval no-cue condition, no retro-cue presented after the memory array, but the probe array would present after the memory array disappeared for 450 ms (short interval no-cue condition) or 1400 ms (long interval no-cue condition). The design and procedure of Experiment 2 were similar to those of Experiment 1, except we used a grey-wheel cue condition and a colored-wheel cue condition to replace the long interval no-cue condition. These two new conditions were similar to the normal cue condition, except the retro-cue would appear with a distractor of a gray wheel (grey-wheel cue condition) or with a distractor of a colored wheel (colored-wheel cue condition). The design and procedure of Experiment 3 were similar to those of Experiment 2, except a long-grey-wheel short-cue condition and a long-grey-wheel long-cue condition were used to replace the normal cue condition and colored cue condition. In the long-grey-wheel short-cue condition, the retro-cue presented for 100 ms, but the grey wheel presented for 1000 ms. In the long-grey-wheel long-cue condition, the retro-cue and grey wheel presented for 1000 ms.

The results of Experiment 1 showed that there was no significant difference in memory performance between the short interval no-cue condition and long interval no-cue condition, while the performance of the normal cue condition was better than that of short and long interval no-cue conditions. The results of Experiment 2 showed that participants obtained the RCE under the normal cue, the grey-wheel cue, and the colored-wheel cue conditions. However, the degrees of RCE obtained by these three conditions were different (normal cue > grey-wheel cue > colored-wheel cue). The results of Experiment 3 showed that participants obtained the RCE under the grey-wheel cue condition, the long-grey-wheel short-cue condition, and long-grey-wheel long-cue condition. The degree of RCE obtained by these three conditions was the same.

The results of the present study supported the hypothesis of cognitive phase separation, which suggested that the retro-cue can separate the internal attention reallocation process and decision-making process, avoiding cognitive interference from the probe display. In addition, when the retro-cue was accompanied by the distractors, the type of distractors (rather than the presentation time) affected the degree of RCE. This study provides further evidence for the hypothesis of cognitive phase separation, which is crucial to solve the debate on the mechanism of RCE and to understand the relationship between attention and VWM.

Key words: visual working memory, retro-cue effect, cognitive phase separation hypothesis, internal attention, recall task

中图分类号: