Recent studies have shown that the temporary storage and manipulation of depth information (working memory for depth; WMd) is largely different from that of visual information in a 2D context (visual working memory; VWM). Although there has been abundant evidence on VWM showing that cueing a memory item during retention could bias attention to its internal representation and thus improves its memory performance (a retro-cue effect), it is unknown whether such an effect differs for WMd that is nested in a 3D context compared with that in a conventional 2D context. Here, we used a change detection task to investigate the effect of attentional selection on WMd by testing several types of retro-cue. The memory array consisted of items positioned at various stereoscopic depth planes, and a cue was presented during retention. Participants needed to make judgments on whether the depth position of target (one memory item) had changed. Our study showed reliable valid retro-cue benefits but no invalid retro-cue cost, indicating that the relational information may be registered in WMd to prevent a strategical removal of the unattended item. There was also a slight improvement in memory performance for cueing depth order compared with that for cueing other feature dimensions or 2D locations. The attentional effect on memory representation in a 3D context is different from that in a 2D context, and the divergence may suggest the distinctive nature of working memory for depth.

最近的研究表明，深度信息（深度工作记忆；WMd）的临时存储和操作与二维环境中的视觉信息（视觉工作记忆；VWM）有很大不同。尽管有大量关于 VWM 的证据表明，在保留期间提示记忆项目可能会将注意力转移到其内部表征上，从而提高其记忆性能（回溯提示效应），但尚不清楚这种效果对于嵌套的 WMd 是否有所不同在 3D 上下文中与在传统 2D 上下文中的比较。在这里，我们使用变化检测任务通过测试几种类型的复古提示来研究注意力选择对 WMd 的影响。记忆阵列由位于不同立体深度平面的项目组成，并在保留期间呈现提示。参与者需要判断目标的深度位置（一个记忆项目）是否发生了变化。我们的研究显示了可靠有效的回溯提示收益，但没有无效的回溯提示成本，这表明相关信息可以在 WMd 中注册，以防止战略性地移除无人看管的项目。与提示其他特征维度或 2D 位置的内存性能相比，提示深度顺序的内存性能也略有提高。3D 上下文中记忆表征的注意力效应与 2D 上下文中的不同，差异可能表明深度工作记忆的独特性质。表明可以在 WMd 中注册相关信息，以防止战略性地删除无人值守的项目。与提示其他特征维度或 2D 位置的内存性能相比，提示深度顺序的内存性能也略有提高。3D 上下文中记忆表征的注意力效应与 2D 上下文中的不同，差异可能表明深度工作记忆的独特性质。表明可以在 WMd 中注册相关信息，以防止战略性地删除无人值守的项目。与提示其他特征维度或 2D 位置的内存性能相比，提示深度顺序的内存性能也略有提高。3D 上下文中记忆表征的注意力效应与 2D 上下文中的不同，差异可能表明深度工作记忆的独特性质。