Independent Attention Mechanisms Control the Activation of Tactile and Visual Working Memory Representations

Working memory (WM) is limited in capacity, but it is controversial whether these capacity limitations are domain-general or are generated independently within separate modality-specific memory systems. These alternative accounts were tested in bimodal visual/tactile WM tasks. In Experiment 1, participants memorized the locations of simultaneously presented task-relevant visual and tactile stimuli. Visual and tactile WM load was manipulated independently (one, two, or three items per modality), and one modality was unpredictably tested after each trial. To track the activation of visual and tactile WM representations during the retention interval, the visual contralateral delay activity (CDA) and tactile CDA (tCDA) were measured over visual and somatosensory cortex, respectively. CDA and tCDA amplitudes were selectively affected by WM load in the corresponding (tactile or visual) modality. The CDA parametrically increased when visual load increased from one to two and to three items. The tCDA was enhanced when tactile load increased from one to two items and showed no further enhancement for three tactile items. Critically, these load effects were strictly modality-specific, as substantiated by Bayesian statistics. Increasing tactile load did not affect the visual CDA, and increasing visual load did not modulate the tCDA. Task performance at memory test was also unaffected by WM load in the other (untested) modality. This was confirmed in a second behavioral experiment where tactile and visual loads were either two or four items, unimodal baseline conditions were included, and participants performed a color change detection task in the visual modality. These results show that WM capacity is not limited by a domain-general mechanism that operates across sensory modalities. They suggest instead that WM storage is mediated by distributed modality-specific control mechanisms that are activated independently and in parallel during multisensory WM.

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Working memory content is distorted by its use in perceptual comparisons

10.31234/osf.io/96axn ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Keisuke Fukuda ◽

April Emily Pereira ◽

Joseph M. Saito ◽

Ty Yi Tang ◽

Hiroyuki Tsubomi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Computational Modeling ◽

Visual Information ◽

Dynamic Environment ◽

Memory Bias ◽

General Mechanism ◽

Memory Representation ◽

Memory Representations ◽

Memory Content

Visual information around us is rarely static. To carry out a task in such a dynamic environment, we often have to compare current visual input with our working memory representation of the immediate past. However, little is known about what happens to a working memory (WM) representation when it is compared with perceptual input. Here, we tested university students and found that perceptual comparisons retroactively bias working memory representations toward subjectively-similar perceptual inputs. Furthermore, using computational modeling and individual differences analyses, we found that representational integration between WM representations and perceptually-similar input underlies this similarity-induced memory bias. Together, our findings highlight a novel source of WM distortion and suggest a general mechanism that determines how WM representations interact with new perceptual input.

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Working Memory Has Better Fidelity Than Long-Term Memory: The Fidelity Constraint Is Not a General Property of Memory After All

Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0956797618813538 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 223-237 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Natalie Biderman ◽

Roy Luria ◽

Andrei R. Teodorescu ◽

Ron Hajaj ◽

Yonatan Goshen-Gottstein

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Hierarchical Modeling ◽

Real Life ◽

Memory Systems ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Total N ◽

Term Memory ◽

Memory Representations

How detailed are long-term-memory representations compared with working memory representations? Recent research has found an equal fidelity bound for both memory systems, suggesting a novel general constraint on memory. Here, we assessed the replicability of this discovery. Participants (total N = 72) were presented with colored real-life objects and were asked to recall the colors using a continuous color wheel. Deviations from study colors were modeled to generate two estimates of color memory: the variability of remembered colors—fidelity—and the probability of forgetting the color. Estimating model parameters using both maximum-likelihood estimation and Bayesian hierarchical modeling, we found that working memory had better fidelity than long-term memory (Experiments 1 and 2). Furthermore, within each system, fidelity worsened as a function of time-correlated mechanisms (Experiments 2 and 3). We conclude that fidelity is subject to decline across and within memory systems. Thus, the justification for a general fidelity constraint in memory does not seem to be valid.

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Domain-Specific Working Memory

Working Memory ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198842286.003.0009 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 235-281

Author(s):

Randi C. Martin ◽

Brenda Rapp ◽

Jeremy Purcell

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Case Series ◽

Memory Systems ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Term Memory ◽

Domain Specific ◽

Memory Representations ◽

Types Of Information ◽

Neuropsychological Findings

The domain-specific approach to working memory assumes specialized working memory systems dedicated to maintaining different types of information (e.g. orthographic, phonological, semantic, visuospatial) which serve to support processing in that domain. These storage systems are assumed to be separate from long-term memory representations in each domain and also from attentional and cognitive control processes. This chapter provides an overview of support for this approach drawn mainly from neuropsychological case study and case series approaches, though it also integrates findings from behavioural and imaging studies of healthy individuals that were motivated by the neuropsychological findings or provide confirmation of those findings. The neuropsychological findings not only demonstrate dissociations between working memory in different domains but also provide a rich source of evidence to address the nature of forgetting in working memory, the interactions between working memory and long-term memory, and the role of aspects of working memory in language comprehension and production.

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I remember it now, so I'll remember it later: Working Memory Representations Guide Inaccurate Predictions of Future Memory Performance

10.31234/osf.io/zxdva ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Julia Krasnoff ◽

Alessandra S. Souza

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Memory Systems ◽

Memory Test ◽

Sequence Length ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Memory Strength ◽

Term Memory ◽

Memory Representations

Making accurate predictions of future memory performance (Judgements of Learning; JOLs) is a prerequisite for efficient learning. Since decades, those JOLs are assumed to be made inferentially, based on cues. This cue-utilization approach substituted the idea that JOLs are directly linked to memory quality. We criticize the reasons for the rejection of this memory-strength hypothesis because they ignore the existence of two different memory systems: working memory which holds representations immediately accessible, and long-term memory which is a more permanent store. Considering both memory systems, the current work revisited the memory-strength hypothesis: In Experiment 1, participants memorized sequences of two or four colored objects, then they provided JOLs for a long-term memory test, and performed a working memory test on the objects’ colors. After learning 200 objects, the long-term memory test on all studied objects followed. Sequence-length affected working memory, but not long-term memory performance. JOLs, however, were higher for sequences of two than four and correlated higher with working memory than long-term memory performance. Experiment 2 replicated the sequence-length effect on JOLs in the absence of a working memory test. Results of a sequence-eight condition revealed an increase in JOLs’ accuracy when the number of studied objects exceeded working memory span. Contrary to predominant theories, our findings suggest that JOLs are based on the quality of memory representations.

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Retrospective Selection in Visual and Tactile Working Memory Is Mediated by Shared Control Mechanisms

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01492 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 546-557 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tobias Katus ◽

Martin Eimer

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Attentional Selection ◽

Control Mechanisms ◽

Selection Processes ◽

Tactile Stimuli ◽

Synergy Effects ◽

Tactile Working Memory ◽

Attention To Task ◽

Selection Of ◽

Attention Shifts

Selective attention regulates the activation of working memory (WM) representations. Retro-cues, presented after memory sample stimuli have been stored, modulate these activation states by triggering shifts of attention to task-relevant samples. Here, we investigated whether the control of such attention shifts is modality-specific or shared across sensory modalities. Participants memorized bilateral tactile and visual sample stimuli before an auditory retro-cue indicated which visual and tactile stimuli had to be retained. Critically, these cued samples were located on the same side or opposite sides, thus requiring spatially congruent or incongruent attention shifts in tactile and visual WM. To track the attentional selection of retro-cued samples, tactile and visual contralateral delay activities (tCDA and CDA components) were measured. Clear evidence for spatial synergy effects from attention shifts in visual WM on concurrent shifts in tactile WM were observed: Tactile WM performance was impaired, and tCDA components triggered by retro-cues were strongly attenuated on opposite-sides relative to same-side trials. These spatial congruency effects were eliminated when cued attention shifts in tactile WM occurred in the absence of simultaneous shifts within visual WM. Results show that, in contrast to other modality-specific aspects of WM control, concurrent attentional selection processes within tactile and visual WM are mediated by shared supramodal control processes.

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Working, Declarative, and Procedural Memory in Children With Developmental Language Disorder

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00135 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (12) ◽

pp. 4162-4178

Author(s):

Emily Jackson ◽

Suze Leitão ◽

Mary Claessen ◽

Mark Boyes

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Language Disorder ◽

Declarative Memory ◽

Memory Systems ◽

Procedural Memory ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Short Term ◽

Term Memory ◽

Visual Spatial

Purpose Previous research into the working, declarative, and procedural memory systems in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) has yielded inconsistent results. The purpose of this research was to profile these memory systems in children with DLD and their typically developing peers. Method One hundred four 5- to 8-year-old children participated in the study. Fifty had DLD, and 54 were typically developing. Aspects of the working memory system (verbal short-term memory, verbal working memory, and visual–spatial short-term memory) were assessed using a nonword repetition test and subtests from the Working Memory Test Battery for Children. Verbal and visual–spatial declarative memory were measured using the Children's Memory Scale, and an audiovisual serial reaction time task was used to evaluate procedural memory. Results The children with DLD demonstrated significant impairments in verbal short-term and working memory, visual–spatial short-term memory, verbal declarative memory, and procedural memory. However, verbal declarative memory and procedural memory were no longer impaired after controlling for working memory and nonverbal IQ. Declarative memory for visual–spatial information was unimpaired. Conclusions These findings indicate that children with DLD have deficits in the working memory system. While verbal declarative memory and procedural memory also appear to be impaired, these deficits could largely be accounted for by working memory skills. The results have implications for our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying language impairment in the DLD population; however, further investigation of the relationships between the memory systems is required using tasks that measure learning over long-term intervals. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13250180

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