Visual working memory is traditionally studied using abstract, meaningless stimuli. Although studies using such simplified stimuli have been insightful in understanding the mechanisms of visual working memory, they also potentially limit our ability to understand how people encode and store conceptually rich and meaningful stimuli in the real world. Recent studies have demonstrated that meaningful and familiar visual stimuli that connect to existing knowledge are better remembered than abstract colors or shapes, indicating that meaning can unlock additional working memory capacity. These findings challenge current models of visual working memory and suggest that its capacity is not fixed but depends on the type of information that is being remembered and, in particular, how that information connects to preexisting knowledge.

中文翻译：

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意义和熟悉度扩大了视觉工作记忆容量


视觉工作记忆传统上是使用抽象的、无意义的刺激来研究的。尽管使用这种简化刺激的研究对于理解视觉工作记忆的机制具有深刻的洞察力，但它们也可能限制我们理解人们如何在现实世界中编码和存储概念上丰富且有意义的刺激的能力。最近的研究表明，与现有知识相关的有意义且熟悉的视觉刺激比抽象的颜色或形状更容易被记住，这表明意义可以释放额外的工作记忆容量。这些发现挑战了当前的视觉工作记忆模型，并表明其容量不是固定的，而是取决于所记住的信息类型，特别是该信息如何与预先存在的知识联系起来。