June 2007
Volume 7, Issue 9
Free
Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting Abstract  |   June 2007
Spatial working memory loads can reduce search efficiency but not the rates of rapid resumption in interrupted visual search tasks
Author Affiliations
  • Jee-Won Ahn
    Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Alejandro Lleras
    Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Journal of Vision June 2007, Vol.7, 685. doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/7.9.685
  • Views
  • Share
  • Tools
    • Alerts
      ×
      This feature is available to authenticated users only.
      Sign In or Create an Account ×
    • Get Citation

      Jee-Won Ahn, Alejandro Lleras; Spatial working memory loads can reduce search efficiency but not the rates of rapid resumption in interrupted visual search tasks. Journal of Vision 2007;7(9):685. https://doi.org/10.1167/7.9.685.

      Download citation file:


      © ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)

      ×
  • Supplements
Abstract

Using an interrupted visual search task in which a briefly presented search display alternates with a blank display until response, Lleras, Rensink and Enns (2005) found participants were far better at resuming a search task following an interruption than they were at starting a search task from scratch (the rapid resumption phenomenon), evidence they took that memory processes were heavily involved in this task. Related studies by Oh and Kim (2004) and Woodman and Luck (2004) have also demonstrated a contribution of memory in visual search; increasing spatial-working memory (SWM) loads reduced the efficiency of visual search. The present research explored whether the memory benefit observed in rapid resumption comes from SWM. We adapted Oh and Kim's paradigm by replacing the static search display with an interrupted search task, while keeping the same SWM load manipulation. Our results showed a detrimental effect in the memory task in the dual-task condition (memory task + loaded interrupted-search task), with little effect of load in the interrupted search performance (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, the discrimination in the search task was made perceptually more difficult. The results indicated an impairment on visual search efficiency. Overall, however, no effects of SWM loads were observed on the rates of rapid resumption in either experiment. This dissociation suggests that the memory processes responsible for rapid resumption are distinct from spatial-working memory. The results are in line with the proposal that rapid resumption stems from mostly unconscious processing of the target prior to the last interruption.

Ahn, J.-W. Lleras, A. (2007). Spatial working memory loads can reduce search efficiency but not the rates of rapid resumption in interrupted visual search tasks [Abstract]. Journal of Vision, 7(9):685, 685a, http://journalofvision.org/7/9/685/, doi:10.1167/7.9.685. [CrossRef]
Footnotes
 Research supported by a National Science Foundation grant to A.L., award # 0527361.
×
×

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

Sign in or purchase a subscription to access this content. ×

You must be signed into an individual account to use this feature.

×