视觉工作记忆内容通常被认为是由刺激信息的精确视觉表示(例如,颜色,形状)。然而,先前的研究表明,个人以不同的格式表示这种视觉信息,历史上分为“口头”和“视觉”格式。随着越来越多的泛音知识,或者没有感觉的心理意象,最近的研究表明,在视觉工作记忆任务中,患有阿凡特症的个体的表现与具有典型图像的个体相似。这表明使用非视觉策略可能足以执行视觉工作记忆任务,以前被认为是严格的视觉。为了研究视觉工作记忆任务中不同策略对性能的影响,我们在视觉图像光谱中招募了个人,并测试了他们识别相对较小(3°)的能力,中等(6°),或在工作记忆中保持的光栅的取向程度发生较大(10°)变化。随后,参与者指出了他们使用五种不同策略的程度:视觉,空间,口头,语义,和感觉运动。结果表明,在所有任务难度级别上,具有幻象和典型图像的个体的表现相似。具有典型图像的个人主要使用视觉空间策略,但令人惊讶的是,与言语策略相比,具有泛音的个体绝大多数更喜欢使用非视觉空间和感觉运动策略。这些结果表明,在视觉工作记忆任务中可以采用非视觉空间和感觉运动策略,并且这些策略与视觉空间策略同样有效。这要求重新思考“视觉”与“口头”的二分法,并为在工作记忆任务中使用其他非视觉心理表征提供了证据。
Visual working memory content is commonly thought to be composed of a precise visual representation of stimulus information (e.g., color, shape). Nevertheless, previous research has shown that individuals represent this visual information in different formats, historically dichotomized into \"verbal\" and \"visual\" formats. With growing popular knowledge of
aphantasia, or the absence of sensory mental imagery, recent studies have demonstrated that individuals with
aphantasia perform similarly to individuals with typical imagery on visual working memory tasks. This suggest that the use of non-visual strategies may be sufficient to perform visual working memory tasks, which were previously thought to be strictly visual. To investigate the effects of different strategies on performance in a visual working memory task, we recruited individuals across the visual imagery spectrum and tested their ability to identify relatively small (3°), medium (6°), or large (10°) changes in the degree of orientation of gratings held in working memory. Subsequently, participants indicated the extent to which they used five different strategies: visual, spatial, verbal, semantic, and sensorimotor. Results revealed that individuals with
aphantasia and typical imagery performed similarly to each other across all task difficulty levels. Individuals with typical imagery dominantly used visuospatial strategies, but surprisingly, individuals with
aphantasia overwhelmingly preferred the use of non-visual spatial and sensorimotor strategies over verbal strategies. These results suggest that non-visual spatial and sensorimotor strategies can be adopted in visual working memory tasks and these strategies are equally effective as visuospatial strategies. This calls for a rethinking of the \"visual\" versus \"verbal\" dichotomy, and provides evidence for the use of other non-visual mental representations in working memory tasks.