Geigerman S, Verhaeghen P, Cerella J. To bind or not to bind, that's the wrong question: Features and objects coexist in visual short-term memory.
Acta Psychol (Amst) 2016;
167:45-51. [PMID:
27107204 DOI:
10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.04.004]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2015] [Revised: 04/11/2016] [Accepted: 04/13/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022] Open
Abstract
In three experiments, we investigated whether features and whole-objects can be represented simultaneously in visual short-term memory (VSTM). Participants were presented with a memory set of colored shapes; we probed either for the constituent features or for the whole object, and analyzed retrieval dynamics (cumulative response time distributions). In our first experiment, we used whole-object probes that recombined features from the memory display; we found that subjects' data conformed to a kitchen-line model, showing that they used whole-object representations for the matching process. In the second experiment, we encouraged independent-feature representations by using probes that used features not present in the memory display; subjects' data conformed to the race-model inequality, showing that they used independent-feature representations for the matching process. In a final experiment, we used both types of probes; subjects now used both types of representations, depending on the nature of the probe. Combined, our three experiments suggest that both feature and whole-object representations can coexist in VSTM.
Collapse