Describing our visual experiences improves their retention in visual working memory, yielding a labeling benefit. Labels vary, however, in categorical distinctiveness: they can be applied broadly or narrowly to categorize stimuli. Does categorical distinctiveness constrain the labeling benefit? Here, we varied the number of terms used to label continuously varying colors (Experiment 1) and shapes (Experiment 2). Participants memorized four items, and later recalled them using a continuous color or shape wheel. During study, participants articulated “bababa” or labeled the items with two, four, or their preferred term. Recall error decreased with increases in the number of labels. Mixture modeling showed that labeling increased the probability of recall. Memory precision, however, varied with categorical distinctiveness: broad labels reduced precision, whereas categorically distinct labels increased precision compared to no-labels. In sum, in-the-moment labeling activates categorical knowledge that facilitates the storage of visual details. Data and analysis scripts are available at: https://osf.io/mqg4k/

描述我们的视觉体验可以提高它们在视觉工作记忆中的保留率，从而产生标签上的好处。但是，标签在类别独特性上各不相同：它们可以广泛地或狭窄地应用于刺激的分类。分类独特性是否会限制标签收益？在这里，我们改变了用于标记连续变化的颜色（实验1）和形状（实验2）的术语的数量。参与者记住了四个项目，后来使用连续的颜色或形状轮将它们召回。在研究过程中，参与者清楚地表达了“ bababa”或用两个，四个或它们的首选术语标记这些项目。召回错误随着标签数量的增加而减少。混合物建模表明，标记会增加召回的可能性。但是，存储精度随类别的独特性而有所不同：宽标签降低了精度，而类别不同的​​标签与无标签相比提高了精度。总而言之，即时标签激活了有助于存储视觉细节的分类知识。数据和分析脚本位于：https : //osf.io/mqg4k/