Dynamic visual noise interference in accuracy and confidence in the response in visuospatial memory tasks

Abstract

The dynamic visual noise (DVN) is used in experimental studies on the visual memory. The researchers used this technique to test hypotheses about the functioning of working memory, specifically the investigation of the mechanisms of encoding, maintenance and retrieval the appearance of objects. There is controversy in the literature regarding the effect of DVN in the accuracy of memory, but recently it was found evidence that noise reduces the confidence of participants in response to visual memory tasks. Moreover, it is still unclear the effect of noise on memory for visual-spatial binding. This study aims to evaluate the effect of dynamic visual noise interference in accuracy and confidence in response to memory tasks in the visual and spatial characteristics isolated and integrated. Participants will be tested on item-recognition tasks of color shades (visual memory), spatial locations (spatial memory) and color shades in spatial locations (visuospatial memory). After judging the stimulus-test, the participant must indicate the confidence about the response. If the dynamic visual noise has direct access to visual storage it is expected interference effect in the accuracy and/or in the confidence of response in visual tasks. Additionally, if is maintained a unitary representation of visuospatial binding, and this representation is stored in the visual cache, is expected interference of DVN in visuospatial binding. (AU)