Dual-task Multiple Object Tracking and Visual Working Memory Study
Submitted for publication. From the abstract:
To understand how the visual system represents multiple moving objects and how those representations contribute to tracking, it is essential that we understand how the processes of attention and working memory interact. In the work described here we present an investigation of that interaction via a series of tracking and working memory dual-task experiments. Previously, it has been argued that tracking is resistant to disruption by a concurrent working memory task and that any apparent disruption is in fact due to observers making a response to the working memory task, rather than due to competition for shared resources. Contrary to this, in our experiments we find that when task order and response order confounds are avoided, all participants show a similar decrease in both tracking and working memory performance. However, if task and response order confounds are not adequately controlled for we find substantial individual differences, which could explain the previous conflicting reports on this topic. Our results provide clear evidence that tracking and working memory tasks share processing resources.
Raw data for all participants can be found in the data folder in each experiment. Data files are initialed and datestamped.
Experiment 1a & 1b:
- Fig 3 generated with experiment_1/data/graph_all.m
- Fig 4 generated with experiment_1/data/graph_all_B.m
Experiment 2:
- Fig 5 generated with experiment_2/data/graph_all.m
Experiment 2b:
- Fig A1 generated with data/analyse.m. See experiment_2b/readme.md for more details.
Data for graph_all & graph_all_B calculated using Show_Results_Each and Show_Results_Each_B.
Note: The code is a mess. If you'd like to use it and have trouble getting it to work let me know and I'll do whatever I can to help.