The Basic Units of Working Memory Manipulation Are Boolean Maps, Not Objects
通过四项新任务实验（80名成人数据），发现工作记忆操作时间仅随布尔图数量增加而延长，而非对象数量，表明布尔图是工作记忆的基本操作单元。
Determining the manipulation unit of working memory is one of the fundamental questions in understanding how working memory functions. The prevalent object-based theory in cognitive research predicts that memory manipulation is performed on the level of objects. Here we show instead that the basic units of working memory manipulation are Boolean maps, a data structure describing what can be perceived in an instant. We developed four new manipulation tasks (with data from 80 adults) and showed that manipulation times only increased when the number of Boolean maps manipulated increased. Increasing the number of orientations manipulated did not induce longer manipulation times, consistent with a key prediction of the Boolean map theory. Our results show that Boolean maps are the manipulation unit of working memory.