ArticlePsychological research2022
Does perceptual grouping improve visuospatial working memory? Optimized processing or encoding bias.
Article in Psychological research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- When spacing meets color: how executive functions impact the use of perceptual cues during arithmetic problem solving.Psychological research · 2026Article
- Assessing individual differences in grouping strategy in visual working memory.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2025Article
- Ordered spatial configuration protects representations of dissimilar items and reduces the similarity effect in visual working memory.Psychological research · 2024Article
- Dimension-based retro-cue benefit in working memory does not require unfocused dimension removal.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Encoding specificity instead of online integration of real-world spatial regularities for objects in working memory.Journal of vision · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Visual working memory has been defined as a system of limited capacity that enables the maintenance and manipulation of visual information. However, some perceptual features like Gestalt grouping could improve visual working memory effectiveness. In two different experiments, we aimed to explore how the presence of elements grouped by color similarity affects the change detection performance of both, grouped and non-grouped items. We combined a change detection task with a retrocue paradigm in which a six item array had to be remembered. An always valid, variable-delay retrocue appeared in some trials during the retention interval, either after 100 ms (iconic-trace period) or 1400 ms (working memory period), signaling the location of the probe. The results indicated that similarity grouping biased the information entered into the visual working memory, improving change detection accuracy only for previously grouped probes, but hindering change detection for non-grouped probes in certain conditions (Exp. 1). However, this bottom-up automatic encoding bias was overridden when participants were explicitly instructed to ignore grouped items as they were irrelevant for the task (Exp. 2).
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Registered trials
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