Multiple-Target Tracking: A Role for Working Memory?

In order to identify the cognitive processes associated with target tracking, a dual-task experiment was carried out in which participants undertook a dynamic multiple-object tracking task first alone and then again, concurrently with one of several secondary tasks, in order to investigate the cognitive processes involved. The research suggests that after designated targets within the visual field have attracted preattentive indexes that point to their locations in space, conscious processes, vulnerable to secondary visual and spatial task interference, form deliberate strategies beneficial to the tracking task, before tracking commences. Target tracking itself is realized by central executive processes, which are sensitive to any other cognitive demands. The findings are discussed in the context of integrating dynamic spatial cognition within a working memory framework.

[1]  J. G. Quinn,et al.  Movement and Attention in Visual Working Memory , 1986, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[2]  N. Cowan.  The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity , 2001, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

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

[4]  A. Baddeley.  The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory? , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[5]  Marc Green,et al.  What determines correspondence strength in apparent motion? , 1986, Vision Research.

[6]  Z. Pylyshyn,et al.  Multiple object tracking and attentional processing. , 2000, Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale.

[7]  Marc Green,et al.  Color correspondence in apparent motion , 1989, Perception & psychophysics.

[8]  D. Norman,et al.  Attention to action: Willed and automatic control , 1980 .

[9]  D. Holding.  Sharing verbal and visuospatial resources in working memory. , 1993, The Journal of general psychology.

[10]  S. Yantis.  Multielement visual tracking: Attention and perceptual organization , 1992, Cognitive Psychology.

[11]  D. Kahneman,et al.  The reviewing of object files: Object-specific integration of information , 1992, Cognitive Psychology.

[12]  Tomaso Vecchi,et al.  Measures of visuospatial short-term memory: The knox cube imitation test and the corsi blocks test compared , 2001, Brain and Cognition.

[13]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Long-term working memory. , 1995, Psychological review.

[14]  W Gerbino,et al.  Mental image reversal and verbal recoding: When ducks become rabbits , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[15]  M. Peters,et al.  Right-handers and left-handers show differences and important similarities in task integration when performing manual and vocal tasks concurrently , 1994, Neuropsychologia.

[16]  N. Cowan.  Attention and Memory: An Integrated Framework , 1995 .

[17]  M. Kubovy,et al.  Auditory and visual objects , 2001, Cognition.

[18]  Z. Pylyshyn,et al.  What enumeration studies can show us about spatial attention: evidence for limited capacity preattentive processing. , 1993, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[19]  J. G. Snodgrass,et al.  Pragmatics of measuring recognition memory: applications to dementia and amnesia. , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[20]  S. Hillyard,et al.  Intra-modal and cross-modal spatial attention to auditory and visual stimuli. An event-related brain potential study. , 1999, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[21]  A. Baddeley.  Is working memory still working? , 2001, The American psychologist.

[22]  Z. Pylyshyn.  Visual indexes, preconceptual objects, and situated vision , 2001, Cognition.

[23]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  A non-parametric analysis of recognition experiments , 1964 .

[24]  Walter Schneider,et al.  Controlled and Automatic Human Information Processing: 1. Detection, Search, and Attention. , 1977 .

[25]  Z. Pylyshyn,et al.  Multiple parallel access in visual attention. , 1994, Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale.

[26]  P. A. Kolers.  Aspects of motion perception , 1972 .

[27]  W. Donaldson.  Measuring recognition memory. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[28]  Zenon W. Pylyshyn,et al.  Subitizing and the FINST spatial index model , 1989 .

[29]  R. Allen,et al.  Attention and expertise in multiple target tracking , 2004 .

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

[31]  Z W Pylyshyn,et al.  Tracking multiple independent targets: evidence for a parallel tracking mechanism. , 1988, Spatial vision.

[32]  K. van der Goten,et al.  Interfering with the Central Executive by Means of a Random Interval Repetition Task , 1998, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[33]  Z. Pylyshyn.  Some primitive mechanisms of spatial attention , 1994, Cognition.

[34]  J. Wolfe,et al.  Preattentive Object Files: Shapeless Bundles of Basic Features , 1997, Vision Research.

[35]  R. Shiffrin,et al.  Controlled and automatic human information processing: I , 1977 .

[36]  James T. Townsend,et al.  Issues and Models Concerning the Processing of a Finite Number of Inputs 1 , 2021, Human Information Processing.

[37]  D. Norman,et al.  Attention to Action: Willed and Automatic Control of Behavior Technical Report No. 8006. , 1980 .

[38]  D. Pearson,et al.  Oculomotor Control and the Maintenance of Spatially and Temporally Distributed Events in Visuo-Spatial Working Memory , 2003, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.