Action consequences guide the use of visual working memory

Sahakian, Andre; Gayet, Surya; Paffen, Chris; van der Stigchel, Stefan · 2023 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/5rknc

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study investigates how the potential consequences of actions influence the utilization of visual working memory (VWM). While VWM is traditionally viewed as a storage system for temporary visual information, the authors argue that its primary function is to guide actions. Consequently, the context of these actions—specifically the severity of potential errors—should dictate how VWM is used. The research addresses a gap in existing literature, which has largely focused on how information accessibility affects memory strategies, while neglecting how the cost of making an error influences memory-guided behavior. The central question is whether severe consequences for errors lead individuals to memorize information more effectively or to utilize stored information more cautiously. To answer this, the researchers employed an online copying task with 104 participants. In this paradigm, participants had to recreate a specific arrangement of six items (varying in shape and color) from a "Model" grid into a "Workspace" grid using a pool of resources. Crucially, the Model remained visible throughout the task, allowing for repeated inspection. The study manipulated two factors: the severity of the penalty for errors (high cost: 5-second wait; low cost: 0.5-second wait) and the accessibility of the Model (high sampling cost: 5-second wait to inspect; low sampling cost: 0.5-second wait). This design allowed the authors to compare how action consequences affect memory strategies relative to the known effects of information accessibility. The results demonstrated distinct strategic adaptations based on the manipulated costs. When the sampling cost was high (making it difficult to inspect the Model), participants inspected the Model less frequently but utilized more information from VWM per inspection, leading to an increase in errors. This replicated previous findings that difficult access encourages reliance on memory, even if that memory is uncertain. However, when the error cost was high (making errors costly), participants did not increase the amount of information loaded into VWM. Instead, they became significantly more cautious in their actions. Specifically, while the number of inspections remained comparable to the low-error-cost condition, the number of errors decreased substantially. This indicates that participants relied only on highly certain information from VWM when the consequences of being wrong were severe. The study concludes that action consequences do not enhance the encoding or storage quality of visual working memory but rather modulate the threshold for utilizing that memory. In contrast to the effect of information accessibility, which drives individuals to store and use more information (including uncertain details), severe action consequences drive individuals to act more conservatively. This finding suggests that VWM-guided behavior is flexible and adapts to environmental demands: humans prioritize caution over efficiency when the cost of error is high, relying on robust memory traces rather than attempting to improve memory capacity through increased effort. This highlights the importance of considering the functional context of memory in cognitive models.

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• prospective memory interruptions