Flexibility in visual working memory: Accurate change detection in the face of irrelevant variations in position

Many recent studies of visual working memory have used change-detection tasks in which subjects view sequential displays and are asked to report whether they are identical or if one object has changed. A key question is whether the memory system used to perform this task is sufficiently flexible to detect changes in object identity independent of spatial transformations, but previous research has yielded contradictory results. To address this issue, the present study compared standard change-detection tasks with tasks in which the objects varied in size or position between successive arrays. Performance was nearly identical across the standard and transformed tasks unless the task implicitly encouraged spatial encoding. These results resolve the discrepancies in previous studies and demonstrate that the visual working memory system can detect changes in object identity across spatial transformations.

[1]  David E. Irwin,et al.  Visual memory and the perception of a stable visual environment , 1990, Perception & psychophysics.

[2]  H Pashler,et al.  Familiarity and visual change detection , 1988, Perception & psychophysics.

[3]  C. Bundesen,et al.  Size scaling in visual pattern recognition. , 1978, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[4]  Maro G. Machizawa,et al.  Neural measures reveal individual differences in controlling access to working memory , 2005, Nature.

[5]  R. Engle,et al.  Individual differences in working memory capacity and what they tell us about controlled attention, general fluid intelligence, and functions of the prefrontal cortex. , 1999 .

[6]  A. Miyake,et al.  Models of Working Memory: Mechanisms of Active Maintenance and Executive Control , 1999 .

[7]  Matthias M. Müller,et al.  Color-selective attention need not be mediated by spatial attention. , 2009, Journal of vision.

[8]  Steven A. Hillyard,et al.  Attention Facilitates Multiple Stimulus Features in Parallel in Human Visual Cortex , 2008, Current Biology.

[9]  Martha J. Farah,et al.  Orientation Invariance and Geometric Primitives in Shape Recognition , 1994, Cogn. Sci..

[10]  P. Carpenter,et al.  Individual differences in working memory and reading , 1980 .

[11]  Derek Besner,et al.  Reading for Meaning: The Effects of Concurrent Articulation* , 1981 .

[12]  Ranxiao Frances Wang,et al.  Integrating visual images and visual percepts across time and space , 2003 .

[13]  R. Desimone,et al.  Inferior temporal mechanisms for invariant object recognition. , 1994, Cerebral cortex.

[14]  Edward K. Vogel,et al.  The capacity of visual working memory for features and conjunctions , 1997, Nature.

[15]  Alan D. Baddeley,et al.  Verbal Reasoning and Working Memory , 1976 .

[16]  Donald E. Broadbent,et al.  Recency Effects in Visual Memory , 1981 .

[17]  G. Alvarez.  Representing multiple objects as an ensemble enhances visual cognition , 2011, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[18]  R. Shepard,et al.  Mental Rotation of Three-Dimensional Objects , 1971, Science.

[19]  Snehlata Jaswal,et al.  Feature binding in visual short-term memory is unaffected by task-irrelevant changes of location, shape, and color , 2011, Memory & cognition.

[20]  M. Chun,et al.  Organization of visual short-term memory. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[21]  S M Kosslyn,et al.  Visual images preserve metric spatial information: evidence from studies of image scanning. , 1978, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[22]  Geoffrey R. Loftus,et al.  Essence of statistics, 2nd ed. , 1988 .

[23]  D. J. Murray.  Articulation and acoustic confusability in short-term memory. , 1968 .

[24]  A. Baddeley.  Exploring the Central Executive , 1996 .

[25]  M. Just,et al.  From the SelectedWorks of Marcel Adam Just 1992 A capacity theory of comprehension : Individual differences in working memory , 2017 .

[26]  G. Loftus.  Essence Of Statistics , 1982 .

[27]  Ronald A. Rensink,et al.  Change blindness: past, present, and future , 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[28]  G. Woodman,et al.  Selective storage and maintenance of an object’s features in visual working memory , 2008, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[29]  Keiji Tanaka,et al.  Inferotemporal cortex and object vision. , 1996, Annual review of neuroscience.

[30]  W. A. Phillips,et al.  Components of Visual Memory , 1977 .

[31]  Maro G. Machizawa,et al.  Neural activity predicts individual differences in visual working memory capacity , 2004, Nature.

[32]  Earl K. Miller,et al.  Selective representation of relevant information by neurons in the primate prefrontal cortex , 1998, Nature.

[33]  G. Woodman,et al.  Storage of features, conjunctions and objects in visual working memory. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[34]  S C Rao,et al.  Integration of what and where in the primate prefrontal cortex. , 1997, Science.

[35]  Neil A. Macmillan,et al.  Detection Theory: A User's Guide , 1991 .

[36]  Laura A. Carlson-Radvansky.  Memory for relational information across eye movements , 1999, Perception & psychophysics.

[37]  M. Farah.  Is visual imagery really visual? Overlooked evidence from neuropsychology. , 1988, Psychological review.

[38]  A. Baddeley.  Working Memory, Thought, and Action , 2007 .

[39]  W. A. Phillips.  On the distinction between sensory storage and short-term visual memory , 1974 .

[40]  W A Phillips,et al.  Interference with Visualization , 1977, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[41]  M. D’Esposito.  Working memory. , 2008, Handbook of clinical neurology.

[42]  D. Simons,et al.  Failure to detect changes to attended objects in motion pictures , 1997 .

[43]  Michael S. Ambinder,et al.  Change blindness , 1997, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[44]  David E. Irwin,et al.  MEMORY FOR STRUCTURAL INFORMATION ACROSS EYE MOVEMENTS , 1995 .

[45]  Ronald A. Rensink,et al.  TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE: The Need for Attention to Perceive Changes in Scenes , 1997 .

[46]  J. Henderson,et al.  High-level scene perception. , 1999, Annual review of psychology.

[47]  G. Woodman,et al.  Voluntary and automatic attentional control of visual working memory , 2002 .

[48]  G. Woodman,et al.  The time course of consolidation in visual working memory. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[49]  Robert H. Logie,et al.  Components of fluent reading , 1985 .

[50]  M. Chun,et al.  Dissociable neural mechanisms supporting visual short-term memory for objects , 2006, Nature.