Assessing process dissociation procedure and implicit memory estimates of automatic retrieval for a retention interval manipulation

Results from standard implicit memory tests suggest that automatic retrieval decreases or remains relatively stable over time, whereas results from the process dissociation procedure (PDP) suggest that automatic retrieval may actually increase over time. Advocates of the PDP view, have suggested that this incongruity results from contamination of the implicit tests by intentional retrieval, whereas the PDP provides a valid index of automatic retrieval. In contrast, new results from a speeded implicit memory test suggest that the standard implicit memory tests provide reasonable estimates of automatic retrieval, but that the PDP underestimates automatic retrieval at a short retention interval when recollection is relatively high. The pattern of underestimation of automatic retrieval found for the PDP condition supports the conclusion that automatic retrieval and recollection are not independent, but rather are positively correlated

Asymmetrical access to color and location in visual working memory

Models of visual working memory (VWM) have benefitted greatly from the use of the delayed-matching paradigm. However, in this task, the ability to recall a probed feature is confounded with the ability to maintain the proper binding between the feature that is to be reported and the feature (typically location) that is used to cue a particular item for report. Given that location is typically used as a cue-feature, we used the delayed-estimation paradigm to compare memory for location to memory for color, rotating which feature was used as a cue and which was reported. Our results revealed several novel findings: 1) the likelihood of reporting a probed object’s feature was superior when reporting location with a color cue than when reporting color with a location cue; 2) location report errors were composed entirely of swap errors, with little to no random location reports; and 3) both colour and location reports greatly benefitted from the presence of nonprobed items at test. This last finding suggests that it is uncertainty over the bindings between locations and colors at memory retrieval that drive swap errors, not at encoding. We interpret our findings as consistent with a representational architecture that nests remembered object features within remembered locations

Long-term facilitation of return: A response-retrieval effect

The present study used a target–target procedure to examine the extent to which perceptual and response factors contribute to inhibition of return (IOR) in a visual discrimination task. When the target was perceptually identical to the previous target and the required response was the same, facilitation was observed for both standard and long-term target–target stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). When the color of the previous target differed from that of the current target but the response remained the same, facilitation was reduced in both the standard SOA and long-term SOA conditions. Finally, IOR was observed for both standard and long-term SOAs only in the condition in which there was a change in response. This pattern of inhibition and facilitation provides new evidence that the responses previously associated with a location play an important role in the ability to respond to a stimulus. We interpret this finding as consistent with a framework in which the involuntary retrieval of bound stimulus–response episodes contributes to response compatibility effects in visual stimulus discrimination

The price of information: Increased inspection costs reduce the confirmation bias in visual search

In visual search, there is a confirmation bias such that attention is biased towards stimuli that match a target template, which has been attributed to covert costs of updating the templates that guide search [Rajsic, Wilson, & Pratt, 2015. Confirmation bias in visual search. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/xhp0000090]. In order to provide direct evidence for this speculation, the present study increased the cost of inspections in search by using gaze- and mouse-contingent searches, which restrict the manner in which information in search displays can be accrued, and incur additional motor costs (in the case of mouse-contingent searches). In a fourth experiment, we rhythmically mask elements in the search display to induce temporal inspection costs. Our results indicated that confirmation bias is indeed attenuated when inspection costs are increased. We conclude that confirmation bias results from the low-cost strategy of matching information to a single, concrete visual template, and that more sophisticated guidance strategies will be used when sufficiently beneficial. This demonstrates that search guidance itself comes at a cost, and that the form of guidance adopted in a given search depends on a comparison between guidance costs and the expected benefits of their implementation

Confirmation bias in visual search.

In a series of experiments, we investigated the ubiquity of confirmation bias in cognition by measuring whether visual selection is prioritized for information that would confirm a proposition about a visual display. We show that attention is preferentially deployed to stimuli matching a target template, even when alternate strategies would reduce the number of searches necessary. We argue that this effect is an involuntary consequence of goal-directed processing, and show that it can be reduced when ample time is provided to prepare for search. These results support the notion that capacity-limited cognitive processes contribute to the biased selection of information that characterizes confirmation bias

Temporal trimming: Evidence that common-onset masking shortens perceptual sampling of conscious object representations

Common-onset masking (COM) refers to a methodology where a mask can impair awareness of an object if the mask’s offset is delayed relative to the offset of the object. This method has classically been used to understand how discontinuities in visual input lead to the discrete removal of object representations before they reach conscious awareness. However, COM has recently been shown to reduce the precision of conscious object representations (Harrison, Rajsic, & Wilson, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23(1), 180–186, 2016). As a result, Harrison et al. proposed that COM shortens the temporal window for perceptual sampling of an object’s representation, an account consistent with interruption-based theories of masking. In the present study we modified the standard COM methodology to assess the impact of a delayed mask offset on the temporal perception of an object’s representation. Across two experiments we provide novel evidence that a delayed mask offset can impair temporal perception of a conscious percept, such that it reduces the percept’s perceived duration (Experiment 1), and prematurely terminates updating of the percept’s dynamic orientation (Experiment 2). We refer to these results as temporal trimming, and suggest that the mechanism responsible for COM operates during the sustained perception of an object

Object-substitution masking degrades the quality of conscious object representations

Object-substitution masking (OSM) is a unique paradigm for the examination of object updating processes. However, existing models of OSM are underspecified with respect to the impact of object updating on the quality of target representations. Using two paradigms of OSM combined with a mixture model analysis we examine the impact of post-perceptual processes on a target’s representational quality within conscious awareness. We conclude that object updating processes responsible for OSM cause degradation in the precision of object representations. These findings contribute to a growing body of research advocating for the application of mixture model analysis to the study of how cognitive processes impact the quality (i.e., precision) of object representation

Looking sharp: Becoming a search template boosts precision and stability in visual working memory

Visual working memory (VWM) plays a central role in visual cognition, and current work suggests that there is a special state in VWM for items that are the goal of visual searches. However, whether the quality of memory for target templates differs from memory for other items in VWM is currently unknown. In this study, we measured the precision and stability of memory for search templates and accessory items to determine whether search templates receive representational priority in VWM. Memory for search templates exhibited increased precision and probability of recall, whereas accessory items were remembered less often. Additionally, while memory for Templates showed benefits when instances of the Template appeared in search, this benefit was not consistently observed for Accessory items when they appeared in search. Our results show that becoming a search template can substantially affect the quality of a representation in VWM

Genetic Analysis of the Iowa Beef Tenderness and Carcass Evaluation Project

Steers from the Iowa Beef Tenderness and Carcass Evaluation Project were harvested and carcass data, including Warner-Bratzler shear force values, were collected. The heritability estimate of Warner-Bratzler shear force in this data set was 0.45, and the genetic correlation between tenderness and marbling score was -0.40. Steers with more marbling were more tender. Heritabilities for feed consumed per pound of gain and for feed consumed per day were 0.25 and 0.26 respectively. These traits were highly correlated with gain, but had no relationship to each other. The heritability of dressing percentage was 0.52. These preliminary estimates can be expected to change as more data are collected

Accessibility limits recall from visual working memory.

In this article, we demonstrate limitations of accessibility of information in visual working memory (VWM). Recently, cued-recall has been used to estimate the fidelity of information in VWM, where the feature of a cued object is reproduced from memory (Bays, Catalao, & Husain, 2009; Wilken & Ma, 2004; Zhang & Luck, 2008). Response error in these tasks has been largely studied with respect to failures of encoding and maintenance; however, the retrieval operations used in these tasks remain poorly understood. By varying the number and type of object features provided as a cue in a visual delayed-estimation paradigm, we directly assess the nature of retrieval errors in delayed estimation from VWM. Our results demonstrate that providing additional object features in a single cue reliably improves recall, largely by reducing swap, or misbinding, responses. In addition, performance simulations using the binding pool model (Swan & Wyble, 2014) were able to mimic this pattern of performance across a large span of parameter combinations, demonstrating that the binding pool provides a possible mechanism underlying this pattern of results that is not merely a symptom of one particular parametrization. We conclude that accessing visual working memory is a noisy process, and can lead to errors over and above those of encoding and maintenance limitations