Interference between smooth pursuit and color working memory

Yue, Shulin; Jin, Zhenlan; Fan, Chenggui; Zhang, Qian; Li, Ling · 2017 · DOAJ

DOI: 10.16910/jemr.10.3.6

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Summary

This study investigates the interaction between non-spatial working memory (WM) and spatial attention, specifically examining how smooth pursuit eye movements affect color working memory performance. While the relationship between spatial WM and eye movements is well-established, the link between non-spatial WM and oculomotor control remains ambiguous. The authors hypothesized that because smooth pursuit requires spatial attention, directing gaze toward or away from memorized items would differentially impact WM maintenance, suggesting a competition for shared attentional resources. The researchers employed a modified delayed-match-to-sample paradigm with 16 participants. Subjects memorized the colors of 2 or 4 squares presented in a cued visual field. During the retention interval, while the stimuli were no longer visible, subjects performed smooth pursuit eye movements by tracking a moving cross. The cross moved either toward the cued visual field (consistent condition) or away from it (inconsistent condition). Control sessions included WM-only and pursuit-only tasks to isolate the effects of dual-task interference. Performance was measured via WM accuracy and reaction times, as well as pursuit metrics including open-loop and steady-state gain. Results demonstrated mutual interference between the two tasks. Adding a pursuit task during retention significantly reduced WM accuracy and increased reaction times compared to the WM-only condition. Conversely, adding a WM task impaired pursuit performance, evidenced by lower peak open-loop gain and steady-state velocity gain compared to the pursuit-only condition. Crucially, WM performance was significantly better in the consistent condition (pursuing toward the cued field) than in the inconsistent condition. This benefit was accompanied by longer reaction times in the inconsistent condition, indicating greater cognitive effort. Furthermore, higher WM load (4 items vs. 2 items) exacerbated the impairment in pursuit performance, resulting in lower gains and higher saccade frequencies. The findings indicate that spatial attention guides the maintenance of non-spatial information, supporting the attention-based rehearsal hypothesis. The superior WM performance when pursuing toward the memorized location suggests that directing attention to the target's spatial location aids in maintaining its non-spatial features. The mutual interference and the specific directional effects imply that color WM and smooth pursuit share common attentional resources, likely originating from the central executive component of working memory. This study extends the understanding of WM-attention coupling to non-spatial domains, highlighting the functional role of spatial attention in maintaining object features.

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• attention selective divided