scholarly journals Statistical Learning as a Reference Point for Memory Distortions: Swap and Shift Errors

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul S. Scotti ◽  
Yoolim Hong ◽  
Julie Golomb ◽  
Andrew B. Leber
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
False Memory ◽  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Memory Item ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Memory Distortion ◽  
Term Memory

Humans use regularities in the environment to facilitate learning, often without awareness or intent. How might such regularities distort long-term memory? Here, participants studied and reported the colors of objects in a long-term memory paradigm, unaware that certain colors were sampled more frequently overall. When participants misreported an object’s color, these errors were often centered around the average studied color. We found that these swap errors reflected both false memory (where objects were misremembered as the average studied color) as well as biased guessing (where participants reported the average studied color when uncertain). Although less robust than swap errors, evidence was also observed for subtle shift errors towards or away from the average color dependent on the color distance between the memory item and the average studied color. These findings provide converging evidence for memory distortion mechanisms induced by a reference point, bridging a gap between visual working memory and visual long-term memory literature.

Manifold Visual Working Memory

2020 ◽  
pp. 311-332
Author(s):  
Nicole Hakim ◽  
Edward Awh ◽  
Edward K. Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Latent Representations ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Spatial Locations

Visual working memory allows us to maintain information in mind for use in ongoing cognition. Research on visual working memory often characterizes it within the context of its interaction with long-term memory (LTM). These embedded-processes models describe memory representations as existing in three potential states: inactivated LTM, including all representations stored in LTM; activated LTM, latent representations that can quickly be brought into an active state due to contextual priming or recency; and the focus of attention, an active but sharply limited state in which only a small number of items can be represented simultaneously. This chapter extends the embedded-processes framework of working memory. It proposes that working memory should be defined operationally based on neural activity. By defining working memory in this way, the important theoretical distinction between working memory and LTM is maintained, while still acknowledging that they operate together. It is additionally proposed that active working memory should be further subdivided into at least two subcomponent processes that index item-based storage and currently prioritized spatial locations. This fractionation of working memory is based on recent research that has found that the maintenance of information distinctly relies on item-based representations as well as prioritization of spatial locations. It is hoped that this updated framework of the definition of working memory within the embedded-processes model provides further traction for understanding how we maintain information in mind.

scholarly journals Is working memory inherently more ‘precise’ than long-term memory? Extremely high fidelity visual long-term memories for frequently encountered objects

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annalise Miner ◽  
Mark Schurgin ◽  
Timothy F. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Continuous Measure ◽  
High Fidelity ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Naturalistic Setting

Long-term memory is often considered easily corruptible, imprecise and inaccurate, especially in comparison to working memory. However, most research used to support these findings relies on weak long-term memories: those where people have had only one brief exposure to an item. Here we investigated the fidelity of visual long-term memory in more naturalistic setting, with repeated exposures, and ask how it compares to visual working memory fidelity. Using psychophysical methods designed to precisely measure the fidelity of visual memory, we demonstrate that long-term memory for the color of frequently seen objects is as accurate as working memory for the color of a single item seen 1 second ago. In particular, we show that repetition greatly improves long-term memory, including the ability to discriminate an item from a very similar item ('fidelity'), in both a lab setting (Exps. 1-3) and a naturalistic setting (brand logos, Exp. 4). Overall our results demonstrate the impressive nature of visual long-term memory fidelity, which we find is even higher fidelity than previously indicated in situations involving repetitions. Furthermore, our results suggest that there is no distinction between the fidelity of visual working memory and visual long-term memory, but instead both memory systems are capable of storing similar incredibly high fidelity memories under the right circumstances. Our results also provide further evidence that there is no fundamental distinction between the ‘precision’ of memory and the ‘likelihood of retrieving a memory’, instead suggesting a single continuous measure of memory strength best accounts for working and long-term memory.

scholarly journals Comparing Visual Memories to Novel Visual Input Risks Lasting Memory Distortion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Saito ◽  
Katherine Duncan ◽  
Keisuke Fukuda
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Real World ◽  
Eyewitness Testimony ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Memory Distortion ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Memory Accuracy ◽  
Memory Distortions

Maintaining perceptual experiences in visual working memory (VWM) allows us to flexibly accomplish various tasks, but some tasks come at a price. For example, comparing VWM representations to novel perceptual inputs can induce inadvertent memory distortions. If these distortions persist, they may explain why everyday memories often become unreliable after people perform perceptual comparisons (e.g., eyewitness testimony). Here, we conducted two experiments to assess the consequences of perceptual comparisons using real-world objects that were temporarily maintained in VWM (n = 32) or recalled from long-term memory back into VWM (n = 30). In each experiment, young adults reported systematic memory distortions following perceptual comparisons. These distortions increased in magnitude with the delay between encoding and comparisons and were preserved when memories were retrieved again a day later. These findings suggest that perceptual comparisons play a mechanistic role in everyday memory distortions, including situations where memory accuracy is vital.

scholarly journals Visual working memory and long-term memory attentional control settings: Can we maintain both simultaneously?

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 1897
Author(s):  
Lindsay Plater ◽  
Alena Moya ◽  
Samantha Joubran ◽  
Naseem Al-Aidroos
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Attentional Control Settings

scholarly journals Oscillatory correlates of uploading long-term memory into visual working memory

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 14-14
Author(s):  
K. Fukuda ◽  
G. F. Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory

scholarly journals The nationality benefit: Long-term memory associations enhance visual working memory for color-shape conjunctions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Conci ◽  
Philipp Kreyenmeier ◽  
Lisa Kröll ◽  
Connor Spiech ◽  
Hermann J. Müller
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Stimulus Complexity ◽  
Object Knowledge ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Memory Associations

AbstractVisual working memory (VWM) is typically found to be severely limited in capacity, but this limitation may be ameliorated by providing familiar objects that are associated with knowledge stored in long-term memory. However, comparing meaningful and meaningless stimuli usually entails a confound, because different types of objects also tend to vary in terms of their inherent perceptual complexity. The current study therefore aimed to dissociate stimulus complexity from object meaning in VWM. To this end, identical stimuli – namely, simple color-shape conjunctions – were presented, which either resembled meaningful configurations (“real” European flags), or which were rearranged to form perceptually identical but meaningless (“fake”) flags. The results revealed complexity estimates for “real” and “fake” flags to be higher than for unicolor baseline stimuli. However, VWM capacity for real flags was comparable to the unicolor baseline stimuli (and substantially higher than for fake flags). This shows that relatively complex, yet meaningful “real” flags reveal a VWM capacity that is comparable to rather simple, unicolored memory items. Moreover, this “nationality” benefit was related to individual flag recognition performance, thus showing that VWM depends on object knowledge.

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