Representation of orientation and spatial frequency in perception and memory: A choice reaction-time analysis.

Magnussen, Svein; Idås, Espen; Myhre, Steinar Holst

doi:10.1037/0096-1523.24.3.707

Cited by 41 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…In contrast to our prediction (see "Introduction"), the increasing delay time in experiment 1 had no effect on orientation accuracy. This observation is in agreement with previous studies that have showed the robustness of the representation of basic visual attributes such as spatial frequency and orientation over extended delay times up to 10 s (Magnussen et al 1998;Magnussen and Greenlee 1999;Magnussen 2000;Wright et al 2000). These studies though have used a single item varying the time of delay between presentation and recall from working memory.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Independent sources of anisotropy in visual orientation representation: a visual and a cognitive oblique effect

et al. 2015

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The representation of visual orientation is more accurate for cardinal orientations compared to oblique, and this anisotropy has been hypothesized to reflect a low-level visual process (visual, "class 1" oblique effect). The reproduction of directional and orientation information also leads to a mean error away from cardinal orientations or directions. This anisotropy has been hypothesized to reflect a high-level cognitive process of space categorization (cognitive, "class 2," oblique effect). This space categorization process would be more prominent when the visual representation of orientation degrades such as in the case of working memory with increasing cognitive load, leading to increasing magnitude of the "class 2" oblique effect, while the "class 1" oblique effect would remain unchanged. Two experiments were performed in which an array of orientation stimuli (1-4 items) was presented and then subjects had to realign a probe stimulus within the previously presented array. In the first experiment, the delay between stimulus presentation and probe varied, while in the second experiment, the stimulus presentation time varied. The variable error was larger for oblique compared to cardinal orientations in both experiments reproducing the visual "class 1" oblique effect. The mean error also reproduced the tendency away from cardinal and toward the oblique orientations in both experiments (cognitive "class 2" oblique effect). The accuracy or the reproduced orientation degraded (increasing variable error) and the cognitive "class 2" oblique effect increased with increasing memory load (number of items) in both experiments and presentation time in the second experiment. In contrast, the visual "class 1" oblique effect was not significantly modulated by any one of these experimental factors. These results confirmed the theoretical predictions for the two anisotropies in visual orientation reproduction and provided support for models proposing the categorization of orientation in visual working memory.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Independent sources of anisotropy in visual orientation representation: a visual and a cognitive oblique effect

et al. 2015

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“…Thus, the difference in the number of objects that can be stored in memory cannot be attributed to a difference in the fidelity with which a single object can be perceived. The results of this perceptual control experiment are consistent with previous research that has shown that memory for the features of sine wave gratings has a high fidelity, with little loss of detail, as compared with the directly perceived patterns (Magnussen, Greenlee, Asplund, & Dyrnes, 1990;Magnussen, Idas, & Myhre, 1998;Magnussen & Stein, 1994). Thus, it is clear that the orientation of gratings can be encoded and maintained in memory very accurately.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Visual short-term memory operates more efficiently on boundary features than on surface features

Alvarez

Cavanagh

2008

Perception & Psychophysics

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346The short-term storage of visual information is a critical component of visual information processing. It enables incoming stimuli to be tracked and compared with current percepts and with other information already in short-term storage or in long-term storage. Early work on visual memory by Phillips (1974) revealed that there are two separate storage systems for visual information: One is a high-capacity sensory store, and the other is a shortterm store with a relatively limited capacity, referred to here as visual short-term memory. Recent work has shown that the upper limit on the number of objects that can be stored in visual short-term memory is quite small, on the order of about four or five simple objects (Luck & Vogel, 1997). The number that can be stored is limited both by an upper limit on the number of objects that can be stored and by the total amount of visual information that can be stored in memory. Thus, increasing the amount of information stored per object reduces the number of objects that can be stored (Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2004).The question addressed in the present article is whether the same abstract code, such as right-tilted or small, is stored regardless of the format in which that information was initially presented. It is easy to imagine abstract codes for verbal memory. For example, if asked to store the uppercase letters A, P, Q, T in verbal memory, there would be no difficulty in recognizing the lowercase letters a, p, q, t as the same, despite the change in physical appearance, presumably because the information has been encoded in an abstract form. Similarly, work on visual memory suggests that letter shape can be encoded with a somewhat abstract structural description, so that memory for conjunctions of color and shape is insensitive to font changes that preserve letter structure (e.g., A vs. A), whereas large impairments occur with changes that alter letter structure (e.g., A vs. a; Walker & Hinkley, 2003). Thus, it appears that, in some cases, visual memory stores complex shape information with an abstract structural code.In the present study, we explored whether boundary and surface features of objects are treated equally by visual short-term memory, as would be expected if visual short-term memory operates over abstract codes. Figure 1 illustrates the difference between boundary and surface orientation and between boundary and surface size. In Figure 1A two different objects with identical orientations are presented. On the left is a Gabor patch (a sine wave grating with contrast vignetted by a Gaussian envelope), and on the right is a single bar of the Gabor patch. Figure 1B highlights the boundary of each object. The boundary of the Gabor has no clear orientation, whereas the boundary of the bar has a strong rightward tilt. In contrast, within the boundary, the Gabor surface texture has a clear rightward tilt, whereas the bar texture (homogeneous black) A change detection task was used to estimate the visual short-term memory storage capacity for either the orientation o...

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“…Based on the results of a series of studies of change detection in VSTM, Wilken and Ma (2004) argue that the apparent capacity limitation in VSTM, which has been interpreted as evidence for a limited number of "slots" in a visual cache-like store, is more simply explained as a byproduct of noise in retained perceptual representations, which increases monotonically as a function of memory set size. (Similar ideas have also been proposed by Davis and Holmes (2005), and entertained by Magnussen et al (1998) and by Vogel et al (2001). )…”

Section: Logical Problems With the Theoretical Framework Of The Standsupporting

confidence: 49%

Working memory as an emergent property of the mind and brain

Postle¹

2006

Neuroscience

1,035

766

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Cognitive neuroscience research on working memory has been largely motivated by a standard model that arose from the melding of psychological theory with neuroscience data. Among the tenets of this standard model are that working memory functions arise from the operation of specialized systems that act as buffers for the storage and manipulation of information, and that frontal cortex (particularly prefrontal cortex) is a critical neural substrate for these specialized systems. However, the standard model has been a victim of its own success, and can no longer accommodate many of the empirical findings of studies that it has motivated. An alternative is proposed: Working memory functions arise through the coordinated recruitment, via attention, of brain systems that have evolved to accomplish sensory-, representation-, and action-related functions. Evidence from behavioral, neuropsychological, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging studies, from monkeys and humans, is considered, as is the question of how to interpret delay-period activity in the prefrontal cortex.Working memory refers to the retention of information in conscious awareness when this information is not present in the environment, to its manipulation, and to its use in guiding behavior. Working memory has been implicated as a critical contributor to such essential cognitive functions and properties as language comprehension, learning, planning, reasoning, and general fluid intelligence (Baddeley, 1986;Engle, Kane, & Tuholski, 1999;Jonides, 1995). In this review I will argue against the idea that working memory functions are supported by the operation of one or more specialized systems, and instead, that they arise through the coordinated recruitment, via attention, of brain systems that have evolved to accomplish sensory-, representation-, or action-related functions. One implication of this view is that the contributions of prefrontal cortex (PFC) to working memory do not include the temporary storage of information.

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Representation of orientation and spatial frequency in perception and memory: A choice reaction-time analysis.

Cited by 41 publications

References 63 publications

Independent sources of anisotropy in visual orientation representation: a visual and a cognitive oblique effect

Independent sources of anisotropy in visual orientation representation: a visual and a cognitive oblique effect

Visual short-term memory operates more efficiently on boundary features than on surface features

Working memory as an emergent property of the mind and brain

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