The nationality benefit

Long-term memory associations enhance visual working memory for color-shape conjunctions

Bibliographic Data

ID21640839
AuthorsMarkus Conci (0000-0002-3403-0318, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, corresponding author), Philipp Kreyenmeier (0000-0003-1533-0515, University of British Columbia), Lisa Kröll (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Connor Spiech (0000-0002-6690-2096, University of Oslo), Hermann J Müller (0000-0002-4774-5654, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
Year2021
Volume28
Issue6
Pages1982-1990
Publication date2021-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychonomic Bulletin & Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1069-9384 • E-ISSN: 1531-5320
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3758/s13423-021-01957-2
PMID34159531
OpenAlexW3176352293
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited35

Visual working memory (VWM) is typically found to be severely limited in capacity, but this limitation may be ameliorated by providing familiar objects that are associated with knowledge stored in long-term memory. However, comparing meaningful and meaningless stimuli usually entails a confound, because different types of objects also tend to vary in terms of their inherent perceptual complexity. The current study therefore aimed to dissociate stimulus complexity from object meaning in VWM. To this end, identical stimuli – namely, simple color-shape conjunctions – were presented, which either resembled meaningful configurations (“real” European flags), or which were rearranged to form perceptually identical but meaningless (“fake”) flags. The results revealed complexity estimates for “real” and “fake” flags to be higher than for unicolor baseline stimuli. However, VWM capacity for real flags was comparable to the unicolor baseline stimuli (and substantially higher than for fake flags). This shows that relatively complex, yet meaningful “real” flags reveal a VWM capacity that is comparable to rather simple, unicolored memory items. Moreover, this “nationality” benefit was related to individual flag recognition performance, thus showing that VWM depends on object knowledge

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · FLAGS register · Nationality · Perception · Short-term memory · Visual perception · Working memory · Communication · Computer Science · Motor Control and Adaptation · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies · Neuroscience · Psychology · Visual perception and processing mechanisms · Artificial Intelligence

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