Abstract
<p>When attention is directed to an item in visual working memory during the retention interval by a retro-cue, memory for it is improved. When several successive cues direct attention to items, a refreshing-frequency effect is observed: Items cued more often are remembered better. This report presents six behavioural experiments in which we examined whether the refreshing frequency effect can be explained by protection from test-display interference (Experiments 1-3) and whether information in working memory is impacted by test-display interference, as previously assumed (Experiments 4-6). Our findings show some support for the refreshing frequency effect, though less convincing than in previous reports. In the experiments including refreshing cues, we did not observe any evidence for test-display interference and were therefore unable to determine whether the refreshing frequency effect can be explained by protection from test-display interference. Without refreshing cues, we did observe an effect of test-display interference. Furthermore, we observed that test-display interference is mitigated by a single retro-cue, replicating Souza et al. (2016; Experiment 6). This dataset provides a basis for further investigation of the refreshing frequency effect and the impact of test-display interference on working memory performance.</p>