The Effects Of Articulatory Suppression AnD Divided Attention On Integration Of Visual Information In The Short-term Memory

Studied the effects of the articulatory suppression and divided attention on the integration of visual features from the same dimension and different dimensions in the short-term memory. Subjects were 180 students (Exp1, Exp2, and Exp3) in Hebei Normal University and Hebei Communications Vocational & Technical College. The 3 types of secondary tasks were no secondary task, articulatory suppression, and calculation task. In experiment 1, a change-detection paradigm using 2, 4, or 6 objects defined by colors was used to investigate the conjunction of colors in short-term memory, and in experiment 2 and 3, using 3 or 6 objects defined by location with color or shape was used to investigate binding in short-term memory. The integration of visual features in short-term memory was studied in an analysis of the accurate rates at different secondary task conditions, different set sizes, and different detection tasks with multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The results showed that neither the articulatory suppression nor divided attention affected the conjunction of the features from the same dimension, that the articulatory suppression maybe affect binding between the features from different dimensions, and that the decrement in binding between the features from different dimensions occurred with divided attention. At the same time, the results showed that the features from the same dimension compete for capacity, whereas features from different dimensions can be stored in parallel. Binding between these features can occur, but focused attention is required to create and maintain the binding over time, and this integrated format is vulnerable to interference.