The Benefit of Surface Uniformity for Encoding Boundary Features in Visual Working Memory

Sung Ho Kim, Jung Oh Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Using a change detection paradigm, the present study examined an object-based encoding benefit in visual working memory (VWM) for two boundary features (two orientations in Experiments 1-2 and two shapes in Experiments 3-4) assigned to a single object. Participants remembered more boundary features when they were conjoined into a single object of uniform color than when they were not bound together into an object. However, such an object-based benefit diminished or disappeared when those features occurred on different parts of an object, as defined by surface discontinuity or by negative minima of curvature. These results suggest that the number of boundary features that can be stored in VWM is influenced by the hierarchical structure of objects: surface uniformity facilitates the integration of two boundary features into a single object representation, but this integration is weakened when the features occur on different parts of an object.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1767-1783
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
Volume37
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2011

Keywords

  • Feature
  • Minima of curvture
  • Object-based encoding
  • Surface uniformity
  • Visual working memory

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