scholarly journals You can’t “count” how many items people remember in working memory: The importance of signal detection-based measures for understanding change detection performance

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamal Rodgers Williams ◽  
Maria Martinovna Robinson ◽  
Mark Schurgin ◽  
John Wixted ◽  
Timothy F. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Change Detection ◽  
Signal Detection ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Memory Signals

Change detection tasks are commonly used to measure and understand the nature of visual working memory capacity. Across two experiments, we examine whether the nature of the latent memory signals used to perform change detection are continuous or all-or-none, and consider the implications for proper measurement of performance. In Experiment 1, we find evidence from confidence reports that visual working memory is continuous in strength, with strong support for equal variance signal detection models. We then tested a critical implication of this result without relying on model comparison or confidence reports in Experiment 2 by asking whether a simple instruction change would improve performance when measured with K, an all-or-none-measure, compared to d’, a measure based on continuous strength signals. We found strong evidence that K values increased by roughly 30% despite no change in the underlying memory signals. By contrast, we found that d’ is fixed across these same instructions, demonstrating that it correctly separates response criterion from memory performance. Overall, our data call into question a large body of work using threshold measures, like K, to analyze change detection data since this metric confounds response bias with memory performance in standard change detection tasks.

Greater Visual Working Memory Capacity for Visually Matched Stimuli When They Are Perceived as Meaningful

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 902-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel E. Asp ◽  
Viola S. Störmer ◽  
Timothy F. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Neural Delay ◽  
Meaningful Stimuli

Abstract Almost all models of visual working memory—the cognitive system that holds visual information in an active state—assume it has a fixed capacity: Some models propose a limit of three to four objects, where others propose there is a fixed pool of resources for each basic visual feature. Recent findings, however, suggest that memory performance is improved for real-world objects. What supports these increases in capacity? Here, we test whether the meaningfulness of a stimulus alone influences working memory capacity while controlling for visual complexity and directly assessing the active component of working memory using EEG. Participants remembered ambiguous stimuli that could either be perceived as a face or as meaningless shapes. Participants had higher performance and increased neural delay activity when the memory display consisted of more meaningful stimuli. Critically, by asking participants whether they perceived the stimuli as a face or not, we also show that these increases in visual working memory capacity and recruitment of additional neural resources are because of the subjective perception of the stimulus and thus cannot be driven by physical properties of the stimulus. Broadly, this suggests that the capacity for active storage in visual working memory is not fixed but that more meaningful stimuli recruit additional working memory resources, allowing them to be better remembered.

scholarly journals Measurement Models for Visual Working Memory – A Factorial Model Comparison

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Oberauer
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Signal Detection ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Activation Function ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Selection Function ◽  
Measurement Models ◽  
Von Mises

Several measurement models have been proposed for data from the continuous-reproduction paradigm for studying visual working memory: The original mixture model (Zhang & Luck, 2008) and its extension (Bays, Catalao, & Husain, 2009); the interference measurement model (Oberauer, Stoneking, Wabersich, & Lin, 2017), and the target confusability competition model (Schurgin, Wixted, & Brady, 2020). This article describes a space of possible measurement models in which all existing models can be placed. The space is defined by three dimensions: (1) The choice of a activation function (von-Mises or Laplace), the choice of a response-selection function (variants of Luce’s choice rule or of signal detection theory), and whether or not memory precision is assumed to be a constant over manipulations affecting memory. A factorial combination of these three variables generates all possible models in the model space. Fitting all models to eight data sets revealed a new model as empirically most adequate, which combines a von-Mises activation function with a signal-detection response-selection rule. The precision parameter can be treated as a constant across many experimental manipulations, though it might vary with manipulations not yet explored. All modelling code and the raw data modelled are available on the OSF: osf.io/zwprv

Induced Social Power Improves Visual Working Memory

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britt Hadar ◽  
Roy Luria ◽  
Nira Liberman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Low Power ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
High Power ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Filtering Efficiency ◽  
Sense Of Power

The possibility that social power improves working memory relative to conditions of powerlessness has been invoked to explain why manipulations of power improve performance in many cognitive tasks. Yet, whether power facilitates working memory performance has never been tested directly. In three studies, we induced high or low sense of power using the episodic recall task and tested participants’ visual working memory capacity. We found that working memory capacity estimates were higher in the high-power than in the low-power condition in the standard change-detection task (Study 1), in a variation of the task that introduced distractors alongside the targets (Study 2), and in a variation that used real-world objects (Study 3). Studies 2 and 3 also tested whether high power improved working memory relative to low power by enhancing filtering efficiency, but did not find support for this hypothesis. We discuss implications for theories of both power and working memory.

scholarly journals The development of retro-cue benefits with extensive practice: Implications for capacity estimation and attentional states in visual working memory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Zerr ◽  
Surya Gayet ◽  
Floris van den Esschert ◽  
Mitchel Kappen ◽  
Zoril Olah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Change Detection ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
Visual Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Store ◽  
Visual Interference ◽  
Memory Resources

AbstractAccessing the contents of visual short-term memory (VSTM) is compromised by information bottlenecks and visual interference between memorization and recall. Retro-cues, displayed after the offset of a memory stimulus and prior to the onset of a probe stimulus, indicate the test item and improve performance in VSTM tasks. It has been proposed that retro-cues aid recall by transferring information from a high-capacity memory store into visual working memory (multiple-store hypothesis). Alternatively, retro-cues could aid recall by redistributing memory resources within the same (low-capacity) working memory store (single-store hypothesis). If retro-cues provide access to a memory store with a capacity exceeding the set size, then, given sufficient training in the use of the retro-cue, near-ceiling performance should be observed. To test this prediction, 10 observers each performed 12 hours across 8 sessions in a retro-cue change-detection task (40,000+ trials total). The results provided clear support for the single-store hypothesis: retro-cue benefits (difference between a condition with and without retro-cues) emerged after a few hundred trials and then remained constant throughout the testing sessions, consistently improving performance by two items, rather than reaching ceiling performance. Surprisingly, we also observed a general increase in performance throughout the experiment in conditions with and without retro-cues, calling into question the generalizability of change-detection tasks in assessing working memory capacity as a stable trait of an observer (data and materials are available at osf.io/9xr82 and github.com/paulzerr/retrocues). In summary, the present findings suggest that retro-cues increase capacity estimates by redistributing memory resources across memoranda within a low-capacity working memory store.

scholarly journals Understanding age-related reductions in visual working memory capacity: Examining the stages of change detection

2014 ◽  
Vol 76 (7) ◽  
pp. 2015-2030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip C. Ko ◽  
Bryant Duda ◽  
Erin Hussey ◽  
Emily Mason ◽  
Robert J. Molitor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Change Detection ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Stages Of Change ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Age Related

scholarly journals Cognitive processes contributing to visual working memory performance in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kimberly Bodner
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Real World ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Adolescents And Adults ◽  
Visual Filtering

Previous investigations of working memory performance in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have yielded mixed findings (e.g., Kenworthy, Yerys, Anthony, and Wallace, 2008; Geurts, de Vris, and van den Bergh, 2014). Research examining visual and spatial working memory abilities in older adolescents and adults with ASD specifically is limited. The current study assessed the contribution of working memory capacity, attention, and visual filtering abilities to visual working memory performance in adolescents and adults with and without ASD. Furthermore, the current study examined task performance related to real world report of working memory and attention abilities. Results revealed comparable estimates of visual working memory capacity overall between groups. However, visual working memory performance for individuals with ASD appeared to be more impacted by increases in attention and visual filtering demands. Individuals with ASD allocated their attention differently than non-ASD individuals, and spent less time looking at relevant information. The ASD group had more difficulty filtering distracting information in more challenging conditions. Difficulties on the task did not significantly relate to reported real world working memory or attention abilities. Findings suggest that visual working memory performance is similar between individuals with and without ASD when cognitive demands are low, but individuals with ASD are detrimentally effected when the cognitive load increases (increased attention and visual filtering demands), consistent with previous literature (Kenworthy et al., 2008). Given the complexity of our environments and need to filter visually distracting information, these findings may shed light on ASD-related difficulties in day-to-day functioning and provide a focus for intervention.

scholarly journals Greater visual working memory capacity for visually-matched stimuli when they are recognized as meaningful

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Asp ◽  
Viola S. Störmer ◽  
Timothy F. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Neural Delay ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Fixed Pool

Almost all models of visual working memory assume it has a fixed capacity: some models propose a limit of 3-4 objects, where others propose there is a fixed pool of resources for each basic visual feature. Recent findings, however, suggest that memory performance is improved for real-world objects. What supports these increases in capacity? Here, we test whether the meaningfulness of a stimulus alone influences working memory capacity while controlling for visual complexity and directly assessing the active component of working memory using EEG. Participants remembered ambiguous stimuli that could either be perceived as a face or as meaningless shapes. Participants had higher performance and increased neural delay activity when the memory display consisted of more meaningful stimuli and when they subjectively perceived the stimuli as meaningful. Thus, there are genuine increases in working memory capacity that arise from the subjective perception of the stimulus as meaningful.

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