Memorability Effects Emerge in Incidental Visual Working Memory

Memorability denotes a stimulus-intrinsic property that results in stimuli being more likely to be remembered or forgotten. The effect is consistent across observers and can be measured in various stimuli such as faces and scene images. Long-term memory (LTM) paradigms have been used to measure memorability with studies demonstrating long-term memorability effects via incidental and intentional encoding mechanisms. The current study expands the understanding of memorability and examines whether memorability modulates the ability to unexpectedly report an image at short intervals. Three sets of experiments (using faces and scenes) with replications used an Attribute Amnesia (AA) paradigm to measure the effect of memorability on incidental visual working memory (VWM) processes while controlling attentional priorities. When participants had to identify the target image in the immediate trial unexpectedly, we observed that memorable targets yielded a higher accuracy compared to forgettable targets, suggesting that people incidentally remember more information about memorable stimuli even across very short intervals. This memorability benefit was observed for both stimulus types but was greater for faces compared to scenes. Thus, memorability modulates the ability to remember stimuli in an incidental VWM task. These results expand our understanding of the mechanisms behind memorability effects, and how attentional filters impact memory traces.