The Role of Visual Short Term Memory Load in Visual Sensory Detection

........................................................................................... 3 List of Tables ..................................................................................... 6 List of Figures .................................................................................... 8 Acknowledgments ............................................................................... 10 Chapter 1: General Introduction............................................................ 11 1.1 Preface ............................................................................... 12 1.2 Load Theory ........................................................................ 14 1.3 Visual Short Term Memory ...................................................... 24 1.4 General methodological approach and overview .............................. 34 Chapter 2: The effects of different types of working memory load on visual detection ........................................................................................... 39 2.1 Chapter Introduction ............................................................... 40 2.2 Experiment 1 ......................................................................... 41 2.3 Experiment 2 ......................................................................... 47 2.4 Experiment 3 ......................................................................... 49 2.5 Chapter Conclusions ............................................................... 51 Chapter 3: Establishing the effects of visual short term memory load on visual detection .......................................................................................... 53 3.1 Chapter Introduction ................................................................ 54 3.2 Experiment 4 ......................................................................... 57 3.3 Experiment 5 ......................................................................... 62 3.4 Experiment 6 ......................................................................... 66 3.5 Experiment 7 ......................................................................... 71 3.6 Experiment 8 ......................................................................... 75 5 3.7 Experiment 9 ......................................................................... 80 3.8 Chapter Conclusions ............................................................... 84 Chapter 4: The effects of visual short term memory load on the retinotopic primary cortex response to contrast ........................................................ 86 4.1 Chapter Introduction ................................................................ 87 4.2 Experiment 10 ........................................................................ 88 4.3 Chapter Conclusions ............................................................... 95 Chapter 5: The effects of visual short term memory load and perceptual load on the contrast response function ............................................................... 97 5.1 Chapter Introduction ................................................................ 98 5.2 Experiment 11 ........................................................................ 106 5.3 Experiment 12 ........................................................................ 112 5.4 Experiment 13 ........................................................................ 117 5.5 Chapter Conclusions ............................................................... 125 Chapter 6: General Discussion ............................................................... 127 6.1 Overview and implications of findings .......................................... 128 6.2 Future Research ..................................................................... 138 6.3 Conclusions .......................................................................... 145 References ........................................................................................ 147