The Mechanism Underlying The Influence Of Real-world Spatial Regularities On Working Memory Processes

In daily life scenes,most objects are not independent of each other,but often have abstract spatial relations conforming to specific rules（hereinafter referred to as spatial regularities）.For example,beach umbrellas are usually placed above beach chairs rather than below them.In a large number of previous studies using simple stimuli,researchers have found that grouping principles can promote visual working memory performance.However,the causes behind the facilitation remain unclear.To explain such a facilitation effect,researchers proposed the ‘perception-alike’ hypothesis.The hypothesis argues that visual working memory processes（i.e.,the encoding phase,the maintenance phase）can benefit from the grouping principles.Within the category of simple stimuli,the ‘perception-alike’hypothesis has been verified,indicating that all visual working memory processes can benefit from the grouping principles of simple stimuli to promote working memory performance.However,there are qualitative differences between the spatial regularities of real-world stimuli and the grouping principles of simple stimuli in terms of complexity and dependence on long-term memory.Therefore,the conclusions obtained from the category of simple stimuli cannot be directly extended to the category of real-world stimuli.So far,only a small number of studies have examined the effects of spatial regularities on visual working memory,however,they did not examine the specific working memory processes affected by the spatial regularities.Thus,the ‘perception-alike’ hypothesis cannot be distinguished within the category of real-world stimuli.Using a sequential presentation manner,we can verify whether individuals can achieve online integration of real-world stimuli with spatial regularities while they are displayed sequentially,thus providing the possibility to test the ‘perception-alike’hypothesis.This study includes three parts: The first part examined the specific process within visual working memory affected by spatial regularities of real-world stimuli with both simultaneous and sequential presentation manners;the second part explored the influence of working memory load on the effect of spatial regularities on visual working memory;the third part used verbal suppression task and masks to exclude the effect of verbal working memory and visual afterimage on the effect of spatial regularities.The study yielded the following conclusions:（1）The effect of spatial regularities of real-world regularities on visual working memory is due to encoding specificity（2）Immediate accessibility is necessary for the effect of spatial regularities in visual working memoryTherefore,this study tends not to support the "perception-alike" hypothesis.This study shows that visual working memory overlaps with visual perception somewhat in the initial encoding process,but the subsequent processes are separated from visual perception.