To-be-attended information can be specified either with positive cues (I'll be wearing a blue shirt) or with negative cues (I won't be wearing a red shirt). Numerous experiments have found that positive cues help search more than negative cues. Given that negative cues produce smaller benefits compared to positive cues, it stands to reason that searchers may choose to use positive templates instead of negative templates if given the opportunity. Here, we evaluate this possibility with behavioral measures as well as by directly measuring the formation of positive and negative templates with event-related potentials. Analysis of the contralateral delay activity (CDA) elicited by cues revealed that positive and negative templates relied on working memory to the same extent, even when negative working memory templates could have been circumvented by relying on long-term memories of target colors. Whereas the CDA did not discriminate positive and negative templates, a CNV-like potential did, suggesting cognitive differences between positive and negative templates beyond visual working memory. However, when both positive and negative information were presented in each cue, participants preferred to make use of the positive cues, as indicated by a CDA contralateral to the positive color in negative cue blocks, and a lack of search benefits for positive- and negative-color cues relative to positive-color cues alone. Our results show that searchers elect to selectively encode only positive information into visual working memory when both positive and negative information are available.

中文翻译：

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不寻找什么：搜索者更喜欢阳性模板的电生理学证据。

可以使用正面暗示（我将穿蓝色衬衫）或负面暗示（我不会穿红色衬衫）来指定要参加的信息。大量实验发现，积极线索比消极线索更有助于搜索。鉴于与正面线索相比，负面线索产生的收益较小，因此如果有机会，搜索者可能会选择使用正面模板而不是负面模板。在这里，我们通过行为测量以及直接测量具有事件相关电位的正负模板的形成来评估这种可能性。对线索引起的对侧延迟活动（CDA）的分析表明，正模板和负模板在相同程度上依赖工作记忆，即使可以通过依赖目标颜色的长期记忆来规避负面工作记忆模板。虽然 CDA 没有区分正负模板，但 CNV 样电位却可以，这表明正模板和负模板之间的认知差异超出了视觉工作记忆。然而，当每个提示中同时呈现正面和负面信息时，参与者更愿意使用正面提示，如负面提示块中正面颜色的对侧 CDA 所示，并且缺乏对正面和负面的搜索优势-颜色提示相对于单独的正色提示。我们的结果表明，当正面和负面信息都可用时，搜索者选择仅将正面信息选择性地编码到视觉工作记忆中。