An Object-based Attention Effect Test In Working Memory

Selective attention is one of the research hotspot in psychology.Because the attention resource is limit,human being are unable to perceive the entire scene at once.So our visual system will always select a part of the scene to process for perceiving our world more effectively.Selective attention and working memory are in closed relationship.With capacity-limited working memory process,in order to finish the goal directed behavior,we are encourage to shift our attention to select target.Moreover,working memory is very important for human's daily activities,such as communication,learning and reasoning,which made working memory the core of the cognition.The current research combined two hotspot researches of cognition.Focusing on the object-based attention in selective attention,this research tried to define“object”in working memory and explore the relationship between internal representation of working memory and the object-based attention.We supposed that object representation could be based working memory.The current research used a two-task paradigm,in which the secondary task was the object-based attention task which embedded in the memory task.Mathematical addition problems and their answers were used as stimulus materials for the memory task,while the answer numbers and random non-answer numbers in the memory task were used as stimulus materials for the object attention task.With the cue only appearing on the answer numbers,the first part of this research was to simply test whether the subjects could bind two numbers(the answer),which were meaningless at usual but had connection after a calculation,successfully each other during the maintenance phase of working memory(experiment 1).On the basis of experiment1,experiment 2 eliminated partly influence of space-based attention,and proved that object-based attention was used to do the task at experiment 1.After increasing the working memory load,experiment 3 further eliminated the influence of space-based attention,and verified the hypothesis that object representation could be basedworking memory.The research data showed that:1.In experiment 1,subjects could shift their attention faster on the numbers as a answer in working memory,which meant that the object-based attention effect appeared.However,attention shifted on the numbers which were isometric but meaningless by working memory had no difference.2.In experiment 2,after eliminated partly influence of space-based attention by manipulating the location of cue appeared,the results of experiment 1 were repeated.Besides,the interaction between cue location and cue validity was significant.3.In experiment 3,by manipulating the memory load of subjects and the presentation of stimuli materials in object attention task,the influence of spatial attention was excluded to a greater extent.And the data show us that the object-based attention effect was significant,which could show that the hypothesis in the current research was reasonable.(experiment 3)Through the three experiments,the current research could made the conclusion: object representation could be based working memory during the maintenance stage.