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Cuthbert B, Standage D, Paré M, Blohm G. Visual working memory models of delayed estimation do not generalize to whole-report tasks. J Vis 2024; 24:16. [PMID: 39058482 PMCID: PMC11282892 DOI: 10.1167/jov.24.7.16] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2023] [Accepted: 04/09/2024] [Indexed: 07/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Whole-report working memory tasks provide a measure of recall for all stimuli in a trial and afford single-trial analyses that are not possible with single-report delayed estimation tasks. However, most whole-report studies assume that trial stimuli are encoded and reported independently, and they do not consider the relationships between stimuli presented and reported within the same trial. Here, we present the results of two independently conducted whole-report experiments. The first dataset was recorded by Adam, Vogel, and Awh (2017) and required participants to report color and orientation stimuli using a continuous response wheel. We recorded the second dataset, which required participants to report color stimuli using a set of discrete buttons. We found that participants often group their reports by color similarity, contradicting the assumption of independence implicit in most encoding models of working memory. Next, we showed that this behavior was consistent across participants and experiments when reporting color but not orientation, two circular variables often assumed to be equivalent.Finally, we implemented an alternative to independent encoding where stimuli are encoded as a hierarchical Bayesian ensemble and found that this model predicts biases that are not present in either dataset. Our results suggest that assumptions made by both independent and hierarchical ensemble encoding models-which were developed in the context of single-report delayed estimation tasks-do not hold for the whole-report task. This failure to generalize highlights the need to consider variations in task structure when inferring fundamental principles of visual working memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Cuthbert
- Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
| | - Dominic Standage
- Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
- Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
| | - Martin Paré
- Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
- School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
| | - Gunnar Blohm
- Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
- Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
- School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
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Abstract
The body of research on visual working memory (VWM)-the system often described as a limited memory store of visual information in service of ongoing tasks-is growing rapidly. The discovery of numerous related phenomena, and the many subtly different definitions of working memory, signify a challenge to maintain a coherent theoretical framework to discuss concepts, compare models and design studies. A lack of robust theory development has been a noteworthy concern in the psychological sciences, thought to be a precursor to the reproducibility crisis (Oberauer & Lewandowsky, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 26, 1596-1618, 2019). I review the theoretical landscape of the VWM field by examining two prominent debates-whether VWM is object-based or feature-based, and whether discrete-slots or variable-precision best describe VWM limits. I share my concerns about the dualistic nature of these debates and the lack of clear model specification that prevents fully determined empirical tests. In hopes of promoting theory development, I provide a working theory map by using the broadly encompassing memory for latent representations model (Hedayati et al., Nature Human Behaviour, 6, 5, 2022) as a scaffold for relevant phenomena and current theories. I illustrate how opposing viewpoints can be brought into accordance, situating leading models of VWM to better identify their differences and improve their comparison. The hope is that the theory map will help VWM researchers get on the same page-clarifying hidden intuitions and aligning varying definitions-and become a useful device for meaningful discussions, development of models, and definitive empirical tests of theories.
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Affiliation(s)
- William Xiang Quan Ngiam
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Institute of Mind and Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
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Yu X, Li J, Zhu H, Tian X, Lau E. Electrophysiological hallmarks for event relations and event roles in working memory. Front Neurosci 2024; 17:1282869. [PMID: 38328555 PMCID: PMC10847304 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1282869] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 12/22/2023] [Indexed: 02/09/2024] Open
Abstract
The ability to maintain events (i.e., interactions between/among objects) in working memory is crucial for our everyday cognition, yet the format of this representation is poorly understood. The current ERP study was designed to answer two questions: How is maintaining events (e.g., the tiger hit the lion) neurally different from maintaining item coordinations (e.g., the tiger and the lion)? That is, how is the event relation (present in events but not coordinations) represented? And how is the agent, or initiator of the event encoded differently from the patient, or receiver of the event during maintenance? We used a novel picture-sentence match-across-delay approach in which the working memory representation was "pinged" during the delay, replicated across two ERP experiments with Chinese and English materials. We found that maintenance of events elicited a long-lasting late sustained difference in posterior-occipital electrodes relative to non-events. This effect resembled the negative slow wave reported in previous studies of working memory, suggesting that the maintenance of events in working memory may impose a higher cost compared to coordinations. Although we did not observe significant ERP differences associated with pinging the agent vs. the patient during the delay, we did find that the ping appeared to dampen the ongoing sustained difference, suggesting a shift from sustained activity to activity silent mechanisms. These results suggest a new method by which ERPs can be used to elucidate the format of neural representation for events in working memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinchi Yu
- Program of Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States
- Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States
| | - Jialu Li
- Division of Arts and Sciences, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education), School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
- NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
| | - Hao Zhu
- Division of Arts and Sciences, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education), School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
- NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
| | - Xing Tian
- Division of Arts and Sciences, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education), School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
- NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
| | - Ellen Lau
- Program of Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States
- Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States
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Ngiam WXQ, Loetscher KB, Awh E. Object-based encoding constrains storage in visual working memory. J Exp Psychol Gen 2024; 153:86-101. [PMID: 37695325 PMCID: PMC10840914 DOI: 10.1037/xge0001479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/12/2023]
Abstract
The fundamental unit of visual working memory (WM) has been debated for decades. WM could be object-based, such that capacity is set by the number of individuated objects, or feature-based, such that capacity is determined by the total number of feature values stored. The present work examined whether object- or feature-based models would best explain how multifeature objects (i.e., color/orientation or color/shape) are encoded into visual WM. If maximum capacity is limited by the number of individuated objects, then above-chance performance should be restricted to the same number of items as in a single-feature condition. By contrast, if the capacity is determined by independent storage resources for distinct features-without respect to the objects that contain those features-then successful storage of feature values could be distributed across a larger number of objects than when only a single feature is relevant. We conducted four experiments using a whole-report task in which subjects reported both features from every item in a six-item array. The crucial finding was that above-chance recall-for both single- and multifeatured objects-was restricted to the first three or four responses, while the later responses were best modeled as guesses. Thus, whole-report with multifeature objects reveals a distribution of recalled features that indicates an object-based limit on WM capacity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Edward Awh
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago
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Forsberg A, Guitard D, Adams EJ, Pattanakul D, Cowan N. Working Memory Constrains Long-Term Memory in Children and Adults: Memory of Objects and Bindings. J Intell 2023; 11:jintelligence11050094. [PMID: 37233343 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence11050094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2023] [Revised: 04/16/2023] [Accepted: 04/21/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023] Open
Abstract
We explored how individual and age-related differences in working memory (WM) capacity affected subsequent long-term memory (LTM) retrieval. Unlike past studies, we tested WM and LTM not only for items, but also for item-color bindings. Our sample included 82 elementary school children and 42 young adults. The participants performed a WM task with images of unique everyday items presented sequentially at varying set sizes in different colors. Later, we tested LTM for items and item-color bindings from the WM task. The WM load during encoding constrained LTM, and participants with a higher WM capacity retrieved more items in the LTM test. Even when accounting for young children's poor item memory by considering only the items that they did remember, they exhibited an exacerbated difficulty with remembering item-color bindings in WM. Their LTM binding performance, however, as a proportion of remembered objects, was comparable to that of older children and adults. The WM binding performance was better during sub-span encoding loads, but with no clear transfer of this benefit to LTM. Overall, LTM item memory performance was constrained by individual and age-related WM limitations, but with mixed consequences for binding. We discuss the theoretical, practical, and developmental implications of this WM-to-LTM bottleneck.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alicia Forsberg
- Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Vicar Ln, Sheffield S1 2LT, UK
| | - Dominic Guitard
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Tower Building, 70 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK
| | - Eryn J Adams
- Psychology Building, The University of New Orleans, 2000 Lakeshore Drive, New Orleans, LA 70148, USA
| | - Duangporn Pattanakul
- Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Austin Peay Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
| | - Nelson Cowan
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, McAlester Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
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