Enhanced working-memory for faces results from an attentional bias, not perceptual characteristics

What is it about?

The present study investigated working memory (WM) for real-world images. People tend to remember better images taken from different categories than from the same category, however, this pattern characterizes only certain types of stimuli (e.g., faces). Here we show that the beneficial memory for faces is not a category-specific effect (e.g., due to their holistic perception). Rather, it is an outcome of an attentional bias to faces, on the expense of memory for other categories. Faces may not be "unique" in their perceptual characteristics, rather, they tend to capture and engage attention due to their emotional and social importance.

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Photo by Kyle Smith on Unsplash

Photo by Kyle Smith on Unsplash

Why is it important?

When measuring WM capacity, one needs to take into account potential biases that may occur at the encoding or the retention phase of WM. These biases may be critical when using real-world images, such as objects, faces and scenes.

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