Perceptual organization influences visual working memory

Woodman, Geoffrey F.; Vecera, Shaun P.; Luck, Steven J. · 2003 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3758/bf03196470

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 bottom-up perceptual organization influences the storage of information in visual working memory (VWM). While previous research established that top-down factors bias VWM storage, the role of bottom-up stimulus characteristics remained unclear. The authors hypothesized that Gestalt grouping principles—specifically proximity and connectedness—bias the entry of items into VWM, such that objects grouped together are stored together. The researchers conducted three experiments using a change detection task. Subjects viewed arrays of colored squares and indicated whether a specific item changed color between a sample and test array. To isolate VWM from verbal recoding, subjects performed articulatory suppression. In Experiment 1, proximity cues biased grouping; when six items were presented (exceeding VWM capacity), accuracy was significantly higher for items grouped with the cued location than for ungrouped items. Experiment 2 pitted connectedness against proximity. When connectedness cues overrode proximity, subjects showed better memory for items connected to the cued object, demonstrating that stronger grouping cues dominate storage biases. Experiment 3 used a postcue paradigm, presenting the cue after the sample array offset. Significant grouping effects persisted, ruling out the possibility that results were merely due to attentional spreading during perceptual processing. The results demonstrate that bottom-up perceptual organization directly influences VWM storage. When VWM capacity is exceeded, items perceptually grouped with an attended object are more likely to be stored than ungrouped items. This effect occurs at the stage of transferring information into working memory, not just during perceptual encoding. The findings indicate that object-based attention mechanisms extend beyond perception to govern the selection of information for maintenance in working memory. This provides empirical evidence that bottom-up cues can bias VWM storage, complementing known top-down influences.

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.

• working memory