Visual working memory (VWM) is typically considered to represent complete objects—that is, separate parts of an object are maintained as bound objects. Yet it remains unclear whether and how the features of disparate parts are integrated into a whole-object memory representation. Using a change detection paradigm, the present study investigated whether VWM performance varies as a function of grouping strength for features that either determine the grouped object (orientation) or that are not directly grouping relevant (color). Our results showed a large grouping benefit for grouping-relevant orientation features and, additionally, a much smaller, albeit reliable, benefit for grouping-irrelevant color features when both were potentially task relevant. By contrast, when color was the only task-relevant feature, no grouping benefit from the orientation feature was revealed both under lower or relatively high demands for precision. Together, these results indicate that different features of an object are stored independently in VWM; and an emerging, higher-order grouping structure does not automatically lead to an integrated representation of all available features of an object. Instead, an object benefit depends on the specific task demands, which may generate a linked, task-dependent representation of independent features.

视觉工作记忆 (VWM) 通常被认为代表完整的对象——也就是说，对象的不同部分作为绑定对象进行维护。然而，目前尚不清楚不同部分的特征是否以及如何整合到整体对象记忆表示中。使用变化检测范式，本研究调查了 VWM 性能是否作为确定分组对象（方向）或不直接分组相关（颜色）的特征的分组强度的函数而变化。我们的结果表明，分组相关的方向特征有很大的分组优势，此外，当两者都可能与任务相关时，分组无关的颜色特征的好处要小得多，尽管可靠。相比之下，当颜色是唯一与任务相关的特征时，在对精度要求较低或相对较高的情况下，方向特征没有显示出分组优势。总之，这些结果表明对象的不同特征独立存储在 VWM 中；并且新兴的高阶分组结构不会自动导致对象所有可用特征的集成表示。相反，对象收益取决于特定的任务需求，这可能会生成独立特征的链接的、依赖于任务的表示。