Memory Representations in Natural Tasks

1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana H. Ballard ◽  
Mary M. Hayhoe ◽  
Jeff B. Pelz
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Natural Tasks

The very limited capacity of short-term or working memory is one of the most prominent features of human cognition. Most studies have stressed delimiting the upper bounds of this memory in memorization tasks rather than the performance of everyday tasks. We designed a series of experiments to test the use of short-term memory in the course of a natural hand-eye task where subjects have the freedom to choose their own task parameters. In this case subjects choose not to operate at the maximum capacity of short-term memory but instead seek to minimize its use. In particular, reducing the instantaneous memory required to perform the task can be done by serializing the task with eye movements. These eye movements allow subjects to postpone the gathering of task-relevant information until just before it is required. The reluctance to use short-term memory can be explained if such memory is expensive to use with respect to the cost of the serializing strategy.

Eye movements, spatial short-term memory, and functional visual field in schizophrenia

1996 ◽  
Vol 18 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 218
Author(s):  
M. Streit ◽  
W. Wölwer ◽  
S. Kiesow ◽  
W. Gaebel
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory

Short-Term Flavour Memory in the Rat

1982 ◽  
Vol 34 (4b) ◽  
pp. 235-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. F. Westbrook ◽  
S. C. Provost ◽  
J. Homewood
Keyword(s):  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
T1 And T2

In a series of experiments, rats were exposed twice to a flavour at times T1 and T2, and the second of these exposures was followed by toxicosis. The level of the subsequent aversion was viewed as an index of whether the flavour had been recognised as familiar at T2, with a familiar flavour accruing less aversiveness than an unfamiliar one. A flavour was recognised as familiar at time T2 after a long flavour-exposure at time T1 (Experiment Ia) when moderate (3·5 h) and long (27·5 h) T1-T2 intervals were employed but was so recognised after a brief exposure at T1 (Experiment Ib) only when a moderate T1-T2 interval was employed. The memorial processes underlying flavour recognition after a brief flavour exposure were assumed, therefore, to be transient. The remaining experiments employed a brief flavour exposure at T1 and moderate T1-T2 intervals in various attempts to disrupt flavour recognition. Recognition at T2, however, was not disrupted when one (Experiment II), or three (Experiment IV) distractor flavours were interpolated between the target flavour's presentations at T1 and T2. This failure was not due to the distractor having proactively interfered with the associability of the target flavour with illness at T2 (Experiment III). Further, recognition was not disrupted when the position of the target flavour's presentation at T1 was varied across a list of distractor flavours (Experiment V), nor when the similarity of the distractor and the target flavour was varied (Experiment VI). The results indicate that the processes subserving recognition after a brief presentation of that flavour, although transient, are resistant to interference and were discussed in terms of current theories of short-term memory in animals.

Working memory: Unemployed but still doing day labor

2003 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 760-769
Author(s):  
Daniel S. Ruchkin ◽  
Jordan Grafman ◽  
Katherine Cameron ◽  
Rita S. Berndt
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Memory Retention ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Target Article

The goal of our target article is to establish that electrophysiological data constrain models of short-term memory retention operations to schemes in which activated long-term memory is its representational basis. The temporary stores correspond to neural circuits involved in the perception and subsequent processing of the relevant information, and do not involve specialized neural circuits dedicated to the temporary holding of information outside of those embedded in long-term memory. The commentaries ranged from general agreement with the view that short-term memory stores correspond to activated long-term memory (e.g., Abry, Sato, Schwartz, Loevenbruck & Cathiard [Abry etal.], Cowan, Fuster, Grote, Hickok & Buchsbaum, Keenan, Hyönä & Kaakinen [Keenan et al.], Martin, Morra), to taking a definite exception to this view (e.g., Baddeley, Düzel, Logie & Della Sala, Kroger, Majerus, Van der Linden, Colette & Salmon [Majerus et al.], Vallar).

scholarly journals Attention Modulates Maintenance of Representations in Visual Short-term Memory

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo-Cheng Kuo ◽  
Mark G. Stokes ◽  
Anna Christina Nobre
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Maintenance Period ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Visual Short Term Memory

Recent studies have shown that selective attention is of considerable importance for encoding task-relevant items into visual short-term memory (VSTM) according to our behavioral goals. However, it is not known whether top–down attentional biases can continue to operate during the maintenance period of VSTM. We used ERPs to investigate this question across two experiments. Specifically, we tested whether orienting attention to a given spatial location within a VSTM representation resulted in modulation of the contralateral delay activity (CDA), a lateralized ERP marker of VSTM maintenance generated when participants selectively encode memory items from one hemifield. In both experiments, retrospective cues during the maintenance period could predict a specific item (spatial retrocue) or multiple items (neutral retrocue) that would be probed at the end of the memory delay. Our results revealed that VSTM performance is significantly improved by orienting attention to the location of a task-relevant item. The behavioral benefit was accompanied by modulation of neural activity involved in VSTM maintenance. Spatial retrocues reduced the magnitude of the CDA, consistent with a reduction in memory load. Our results provide direct evidence that top–down control modulates neural activity associated with maintenance in VSTM, biasing competition in favor of the task-relevant information.

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