Costs of Manipulating Information in Visual Working Memory

[摘要] Our internal representation of a complex visual scene relies on the dynamic processing of information in visual working memory (VWM). Though traditional methods have focused on storage limitations, here I move beyond these issues to explore cognitive abilities for dynamically manipulating information in VWM. To this end, I developed a novel task in which participants are presented with a memory display consisting of colored circles, whose colors disappear to leave behind circular placeholders. Pairs of placeholders swap positions a varying number of times, after which participants judge the hidden color of a probed placeholder. This task is analogous to static change-detection, along with a manipulation component that requires the updating of spatial-feature bindings of objects as they engage in smooth motion. In Experiments 1- 4, I investigated whether there are any costs associated with manipulating information in VWM. To this end, I varied set size (2, 3, or 4 placeholders) and number of swaps (0-4 swaps). A systematic impairment of memory was observed for manipulating 3-4 items that increased with swaps. In contrast, performance with 2 items was unaffected by swaps. In Experiments 5-7, I demonstrated that manipulating information in VWM does not affect information that is strictly stored in this system. Relatedly, I investigated the inverse of this relationship in Experiments 8-9, and demonstrated that information load, a factor known to limit storage capacity, does not additionally constrain manipulation ability. These results suggest that VWM storage and manipulate operate on two separate representations. In a dynamic world, the mind requires the ability to dynamically manipulate working memory representations – not merely the ability to passively store static representations.

[发布机构] Johns Hopkins University

[效力级别] short-term memory

[关键词] visual working memory;short-term memory;working memory;memory;visual cognition;cognitive psychology;Psychology