Visual working memory representation as a topological defined perceptual object

The question of what the basic unit is of visual working memory remains one of the most fundamental and controversial issues. In the current study, we proposed a unique perspective based on early topological perception to describe the nature of representation in visual working memory. In a series of updating change-detection tasks, the repetition-benefit effect on color memory was not affected when items in the second memory array underwent massive changes of nontopological features from the first memory array. However, when the topological properties of an item changed, the repetition-benefit effect was destroyed, suggesting that the item was perceived as a new object impairing the original memory. Hence, our results suggest that a perceptual object defined by its topological invariance might be a unique perspective from which to describe representations of visual working memory.