Working memory’s pointer system is governed by physical objecthood, not spatiotemporal information

Balaban, Halely · 2026 · Crossref

DOI: 10.3758/s13423-026-02912-9

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Summary

This study investigates the mechanism governing the "pointer system" in visual working memory (VWM), which maintains a mapping between internal representations and external objects. The research addresses whether this mapping relies on spatiotemporal continuity or on the perception of physical objecthood. When the mapping is disrupted, VWM undergoes a "resetting" process, removing inaccessible representations and causing a behavioral cost where observers fail to detect salient changes. The authors aimed to disentangle these factors to determine if resetting is triggered by spatiotemporal disruption alone or by the destruction of object integrity. Two preregistered experiments employed an online change detection task. Participants monitored moving polygons for shape changes occurring during movement. In Experiment 1, intact objects either maintained a constant trajectory or underwent an abrupt 90° trajectory change. In Experiment 2, objects were split into two halves; one half changed trajectory while the other continued straight. This condition was tested with both unicolored (black) and bicolored (black/blue) polygons to assess the impact of object individuation cues. Performance was measured by hit rates for detecting shape changes relative to the timing of trajectory changes or splits. Experiment 1 found that abrupt spatiotemporal changes in intact objects did not impair change detection, indicating no resetting cost. In contrast, Experiment 2 revealed a significant behavioral cost when objects split, regardless of whether the shape change occurred in the half that changed trajectory or the half that continued its original path. This cost was more pronounced for unicolored objects than for bicolored ones, where distinct colors helped maintain separate pointers. Crucially, the finding that the continuing half also suffered a detection deficit demonstrates that spatiotemporal continuity is insufficient to sustain the mapping if the object’s physical integrity is destroyed. The results conclude that VWM’s pointer system is governed by physical objecthood rather than spatiotemporal information per se. Resetting reflects a specific invalidation of the object-based mapping, not merely a difficulty in reassigning pointers based on trajectory shifts. This implies that while spatiotemporal continuity is a component of objecthood, it is not the sole determinant of pointer maintenance. The findings support a view of VWM as intimately linked to intuitive physics and object individuation, suggesting that the pointer system relies on holistic object representations rather than fragmented spatiotemporal data.

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