In tests of working memory with verbal or spatial materials, repeating the same memory sets across trials leads to improved memory performance. This well-established “Hebb repetition effect” could not be shown for visual materials in previous research. The absence of the Hebb effect can be explained in two ways: Either persons fail to acquire a long-term memory representation of the repeated memory sets, or they acquire such long-term memory representations, but fail to use them during the working memory task. In two experiments (N₁ = 18 and N₂ = 30), we aimed to decide between these two possibilities by manipulating the long-term memory knowledge of some of the memory sets used in a change-detection task. Before the change-detection test, participants learned three arrays of colors to criterion. The subsequent change-detection test contained both previously learned and new color arrays. Change detection performance was better on previously learned compared with new arrays, showing that long-term memory is used in change detection.

在使用言语或空间材料进行工作记忆测试时，在试验中重复相同的记忆组可以提高记忆性能。这种行之有效的“赫布重复效应”在之前的研究中无法在视觉材料中表现出来。赫布效应的缺失可以用两种方式来解释：要么人们无法获得重复记忆集的长期记忆表征，要么他们获得了这种长期记忆表征，但在工作记忆任务中未能使用它们。在两个实验（ N ₁ = 18 和N ₂ = 30）中，我们的目的是通过操纵变化检测任务中使用的一些记忆集的长期记忆知识来在这两种可能性之间做出决定。在变化检测测试之前，参与者学习了三种颜色阵列来作为标准。随后的变化检测测试包含先前学习的颜色数组和新的颜色数组。与新阵列相比，先前学习的变化检测性能更好，这表明在变化检测中使用了长期记忆。