Figure 3.

Experiment 2 (a/b) task paradigm, stimulus configurations, and behavioral results for Experiment 2a. A) Participants first viewed a fixation cross (300 ms) and then were given an arrow cue (200 ms) indicating the side of the screen to which they should covertly attend during the trial. A variable interval (300–400 ms) preceded a memory array (100 ms) containing one of the three conditions displayed above: Two items (2-UG), three items (3-UG), or three items in which two of the items were connected (3-C). After a delay-period (Experiment 2a: 900 ms; Experiment 2b: 600, 700, 800, or 900 ms), a probed item appeared that was either the same color (“old” trials) as presented originally or was a different color (“new” trials). Participants were given 3 seconds to respond. Note that stimuli are depicted for illustrative purposes only and do not reflect the exact dimensions and visual angles of the stimuli displayed during the actual experiment. B) VWM performance in Experiment 2a. The abscissa depicts the stimulus conditions for Experiment 2a. Accuracy is plotted along the ordinate by showing the proportion of correct trials in each condition. C) The abscissa depicts the two probe types for trials from the three object connected condition, which could have been a colored square that was grouped or ungrouped during stimulus presentation. Accuracy is plotted along the ordinate by showing the proportion of correct trials for each probe type within the three object connected condition. In panels B and C asterisks symbolize an observed significant difference between various conditions; α = p < 0.05. Error bars represent the standard errors of the means.