The Role Of Object Representation Strength Of Sensory Memory And Working Memory And Its Relationship On Object-Based Attention

Object-based attention(OBA)is an important field in visual attention research.Attention can choose an object as a unit of perception for processing,and when attention is guided to a part of an object,the processing of other features of the object is also promoted.The concept of object representation strength is of great importance in OBA research.Research have shown that object representation strength can influence OBA,and objects with stronger object representations are easier to capture attention.However,only few OBA researches have focused on the importance of object representation in OBA so far.This paper emphasized the idea that selective attention operates on object representation,which can be maintained or developed in sensory memory and working memory systems.And the object representations maintained or developed in sensory and working memory systems can influence selective attention and produce OBA effects.In this paper,the influence of object representation strength on OBA was explored with modified double-rectangle paradigm using numbers as the stimulus material.In experiment 1,we used a modified double-rectangle paradigm to investigate whether object representations maintained in visual sensory memory can direct the allocation of attention to produce object-based attention effects.The results of experiment 1 showed that significant object-based attention effects were observed,suggesting that object representations maintained in sensory memory can trigger OBA effects.Experiment 2 still adopts the variation of the classic double-rectangular paradigm,requiring subjects to have two double digits of horizontal or vertical memory,so as to form working memory object representations,so as to examine the effect of object representations maintained in working memory on OBA.The results of experiment 2 showed that significant attention effects based on working memory objects were observed,demonstrating that object representations,maintained separately in working memory,can also elicit OBA effects.Experiment 3 introduced sensory memory and working memory tasks simultaneously,and experimentally manipulated the consistency of their object representations,and further examined the effects of OBA when consistent or inconsistent between the two memory systems.The results of experiment 3showed that significant OBA effects could be observed when the sensory memory object representation was consistent with the working memory object representation.In the case of inconsistent object representation,the OBA effect was determined by the relative object representation strength,and the OBA effect was guided by the one with the stronger relative object representation strength,which confirmed that the OBA effect is indeed affected by the strength of the object representation,and once again proved the conjecture of this paper.In short,this paper provided evidence for the influence of the object representation on the OBA,found that selective attention operated on object representation,which can be maintained or developed in sensory memory and working memory systems.The OBA effect will be influenced by the strength of the object representation and guided by objects with stronger relative object representation strength.