Beyond a mask and against the bottleneck: Retroactive dual-task interference during working memory consolidation of a masked visual target.

Nieuwenstein, Mark; Wyble, Brad · 2014 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1037/a0035257

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Summary

This study addresses a fundamental disagreement in cognitive psychology regarding the time course of working memory consolidation (WMC). One perspective, derived from visual masking studies, posits that a trailing mask interrupts consolidation, implying that recallable information must be consolidated within the brief stimulus duration (e.g., 100 ms). Conversely, dual-task interference research, particularly on the attentional blink, suggests that consolidation is a slower process that can continue for several hundred milliseconds even after a mask has appeared. Nieuwenstein and Wyble (2014) sought to adjudicate between these opposing views by determining whether the processing of a masked visual stimulus can be disrupted by a subsequent task. To test this, the authors conducted experiments examining retroactive dual-task interference. Participants were asked to encode visual stimuli—either a string of four letters (Experiment 1) or an unfamiliar complex shape, such as a Kanji character (Experiment 2)—into working memory for later recall or recognition. These targets were presented for approximately 100 ms and were followed by a mask in half of the trials. Crucially, a secondary 2-alternative forced choice (2-AFC) task, such as a visual parity judgment or color discrimination, was introduced at varying stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) ranging from 250 to 1,494 ms after the target. This design allowed the researchers to assess if the secondary task interfered with the consolidation of the primary target after the mask had already been presented. The results demonstrated a pronounced retroactive interference effect. Performance on the memory task was significantly impaired when the secondary 2-AFC task was presented, and this interference dissipated across SOAs of 250 to 1,000 ms. This indicates that the processing required for the secondary task disrupted the gradual consolidation of the earlier stimuli for up to several hundred milliseconds after the mask. This effect was robust across different stimulus types (letters and complex shapes) and persisted regardless of whether the stimuli were masked. However, the interference was reduced when the memory load of the first task was lowered or when the second task was a simple color detection task that did not require decision-making. These findings challenge the common assumption that working memory consolidation is an immutable process interrupted by masking. Instead, the study provides evidence that consolidation is a vulnerable, ongoing process that can be disturbed by subsequent cognitive demands long after the initial stimulus and mask have disappeared. This implies that backward masking cannot be used as a precise tool to restrict or measure the duration of consolidation, as previously assumed in many perceptual and memory studies. The results support theories suggesting that WMC relies on central processing resources shared with decision-making tasks, thereby extending the timeline of consolidation well beyond the initial sensory input.

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• dual task performance