Human Visual Short-Term Memory Precision Can Be Varied at Will When the Number of Retained Items Is Low

Psychological Science

Volumn 23, Issue 6, 2012, Pages 554-559

  Machizawa, Maro G ^a,b   Goh, Crystal C W ^a   Driver, Jon ^a,b,c  

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^c UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

cognitive neuroscience; evoked potentials; visual attention; visual memory; visuospatial ability

Indexed keywords

EID: 84862238820     PISSN: 09567976     EISSN: 14679280     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0956797611431988     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. Alvarez G.A.,Cavanagh P.The capacity of visual short-term memory is set both by visual information load and by number of objects.Psychological Science. 2004;15:106-111.
2. Anderson D.E.,Vogel E.K.,Awh E.Precision in visual working memory reaches a stable plateau when individual item limits are exceeded.Journal of Neuroscience. 2011;31:1128-1138.
3. Awh E.,Barton B.,Vogel E.K.Visual working memory represents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity.Psychological Science. 2007;18:622-628.
4. Barton B.,Ester E.,Awh E.Discrete resource allocation in visual working memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 2009;35:1359-1367.
5. BaysP. M.CatalaoR. F. G.HusainM. (2009). The precision of visual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource. Journal of Vision, 9(10), Article 7. Retrieved from http://www.journalofvision.org/content/9/10/7.
6. Bays P.M.,Husain M.Dynamic shifts of limited working memory resources in human vision.Science. 2008;321:851-854.
7. Buschman T.J.,Siegel M.,Roy J.E.,Miller E.K.Neural substrates of cognitive capacity limitations.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 2011;108:11252-11255.
8. Cowan N.The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity.Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2001;24:87-114.
9. Fukuda K.,Awh E.,Vogel E.K.Discrete capacity limits in visual working memory.Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 2010;20:177-182.
10. GaoZ.LiJ.LiangJ.ChenH.YinJ.ShenM. (2009). Storing fine detailed information in visual working memory-Evidence from event-related potentials. Journal of Vision, 9(7), Article 17. Retrieved from http://www.journalofvision.org/content/9/7/17.
11. Gao Z.,Yin J.,Xu H.,Shui R.,Shen M.Tracking object number or information load in visual working memory: Revisiting the cognitive implication of contralateral delay activity.Biological Psychology. 2011;87:296-302.
12. Gorgoraptis N.,Catalao R.F.,Bays P.M.,Husain M.Dynamic updating of working memory resources for visual objects.Journal of Neuroscience. 2011;31:8502-8511.
13. HuangL. (2010). Visual working memory is better characterized as a distributed resource rather than discrete slots. Journal of Vision, 10(14), Article 8. Retrieved from http://www.journalofvision.org/content/10/14/8.
14. Ikkai A.,McCollough A.W.,Vogel E.K.Contralateral delay activity provides a neural measure of the number of representations in visual working memory.Journal of Neurophysiology. 2010;103:1963-1968.
15. Luck S.J.,Vogel E.K.The capacity of visual working memory for features and conjunctions.Nature. 1997;390:279-281.
16. Machizawa M.G.,Driver J.Principal component analysis of behavioural individual differences suggests that particular aspects of visual working memory may relate to specific aspects of attention.Neuropsychologia. 2011;49:1518-1526.
17. McCollough A.W.,Machizawa M.G.,Vogel E.K.Electrophysiological measures of maintaining representations in visual working memory.Cortex. 2007;43:77-94.
18. McNab F.,Klingberg T.Prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia control access to working memory.Nature Neuroscience. 2008;11:103-107.
19. Vogel E.K.,Machizawa M.G.Neural activity predicts individual differences in visual working memory capacity.Nature. 2004;428:748-751.
20. Vogel E.K.,McCollough A.W.,Machizawa M.G.Neural measures reveal individual differences in controlling access to working memory.Nature. 2005;438:500-503.
21. WilkenP.MaW. J. (2004). A detection theory account of change detection. Journal of Vision, 4(12), Article 11. Retrieved from http://www.journalofvision.org/content/4/12/11.
22. Xu Y.,Chun M.M.Dissociable neural mechanisms supporting visual short-term memory for objects.Nature. 2006;440:91-95.
23. Zhang W.,Luck S.J.Discrete fixed-resolution representations in visual working memory.Nature. 2008;453:233-235.