All experiments in this paper used the same general procedure. Each trial started with a brief fixation, followed by two mosaic stimuli composed of small squares with varying hues. The hues of each stimulus were drawn from a normal distribution centered on a randomly selected hue. After a short delay, a cue (white circle) indicated which item to report. Participants reported the average hue of the cued item. In Experiments 2–4, cue presentation and report were then repeated for the second item (not shown).
Overall performance in both experiments changed as a function of target noise, whereas non-target noise (and thus the noise equality condition) did not affect error magnitude. Bars show average absolute errors; error bars show 95% confidence intervals.
We test these predictions in 4 #VWM experiments with color stimuli made of small patches, so we can manipulate the noisiness of each item separately. As expected, noisier targets mean larger errors—but overall accuracy is not affected by non-target noise. 5/9
