Recent studies have examined the role of attention in retaining bound representations in working memory (WM) and found that object-based attention plays a pivotal role. However, no study has investigated whether maintaining bound representations with more features in WM requires extra object-based attention. We investigated this by examining whether a secondary task consuming object-based attention was more disruptive to the maintenance of bindings in WM when more features were stored per object. We instructed participants to memorize three bound representations in a WM task while manipulating the number of features (two vs. three features) contained in each representation. Moreover, we manipulated whether a secondary task consuming object-based attention was interpolated into the maintenance phase of WM. If extra object-based attention was required after the addition of an extra feature in the bound representation, the secondary task would result in a greater disruption of the three- rather than two-featured binding. In two experiments, we found that the added secondary task significantly impaired the binding performance, but the performance of the two- and three-featured bindings was disrupted to the same extent. These results suggest that the presence of more features in a bound representation in WM does not require extra object-based attention.

最近的研究检查了注意力在保留工作记忆 (WM) 中的边界表征方面的作用，并发现基于对象的注意力起着关键作用。然而，没有研究调查在 WM 中维护具有更多特征的边界表示是否需要额外的基于对象的注意力。我们通过检查当每个对象存储更多特征时，消耗基于对象的注意力的次要任务是否对 WM 中的绑定维护更具破坏性，从而对此进行了调查。我们指示参与者记住 WM 任务中的三个绑定表示，同时操纵每个表示中包含的特征数量（两个对三个特征）。此外，我们操纵是否将消耗基于对象的注意力的次要任务插入到 WM 的维护阶段。如果在绑定表示中添加额外特征后需要额外的基于对象的注意力，则次要任务将导致三特征绑定而不是二特征绑定的更大破坏。在两个实验中，我们发现增加的次要任务显着削弱了绑定性能，但双特征和三特征绑定的性能受到同样程度的破坏。这些结果表明，在 WM 的绑定表示中存在更多特征不需要额外的基于对象的注意力。但是两个和三个特征绑定的性能也受到了同样程度的干扰。这些结果表明，在 WM 的绑定表示中存在更多特征不需要额外的基于对象的注意力。但是两个和三个特征绑定的性能也受到了同样程度的干扰。这些结果表明，在 WM 的绑定表示中存在更多特征不需要额外的基于对象的注意力。