Storage in Visual Working Memory Recruits a Content-Independent Pointer System

• Published in: Psychological science Vol. 33; no. 10; pp. 1680 - 1694
• Main Authors: Thyer, William, Adam, Kirsten C. S., Diaz, Gisella K., Velázquez Sánchez, Itzel N., Vogel, Edward K., Awh, Edward
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.10.2022; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Cognitive load; Electroencephalography; Individual differences; Memories; Multivariate analysis; Recruits; Research subjects; Short term memory; Stimulus; Topography; Tracking; visual working memory; open materials; spatiotemporal pointers; open data; electroencephalogram
• ISSN: 0956-7976; 1467-9280; 1467-9280
• DOI: 10.1177/09567976221090923

Past work has shown that storage in working memory elicits stimulus-specific neural activity that tracks the stored content. Here, we present evidence for a distinct class of load-sensitive neural activity that indexes items without representing their contents per se. We recorded electroencephalogra...