Visual working memory for simple and complex visual stimuli

Eng, Hing Yee; Chen, Diyu; Jiang, Yuhong

doi:10.1167/5.8.611

Cited by 69 publications

(117 citation statements)

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“…This suggestion could further be relevant when considering that we used complex memory items. Previous studies have shown that increased object complexity may constitute a higher information load, which thereby limits the object capacity of short-term memory (Alvarez and Cavanagh, 2004;Eng et al, 2005;Luria et al, 2010). Therefore, complexity-imposed shrinkage in VSTM capacity could be particularly costly when the number of memory items approaches the capacity limit.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Topographic Contribution of Early Visual Cortex to Short-Term Memory Consolidation: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study

Ven¹,

Jacobs²,

Sack³

2012

J. Neurosci.

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The neural correlates for retention of visual information in visual short-term memory are considered separate from those of sensory encoding. However, recent findings suggest that sensory areas may play a role also in short-term memory. We investigated the functional relevance, spatial specificity, and temporal characteristics of human early visual cortex in the consolidation of capacity-limited topographic visual memory using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Topographically specific TMS pulses were delivered over lateralized occipital cortex at 100, 200, or 400 ms into the retention phase of a modified change detection task with low or high memory loads. For the high but not the low memory load, we found decreased memory performance for memory trials in the visual field contralateral, but not ipsilateral to the side of TMS, when pulses were delivered at 200 ms into the retention interval. A behavioral version of the TMS experiment, in which a distractor stimulus (memory mask) replaced the TMS pulses, further corroborated these findings. Our findings suggest that retinotopic visual cortex contributes to the short-term consolidation of topographic visual memory during early stages of the retention of visual information. Further, TMS-induced interference decreased the strength (amplitude) of the memory representation, which most strongly affected the high memory load trials.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Topographic Contribution of Early Visual Cortex to Short-Term Memory Consolidation: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study

Ven¹,

Jacobs²,

Sack³

2012

J. Neurosci.

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“…The capacity of working memory (WM), our ability to shortly maintain and manipulate relevant information, is constrained (Luck and Vogel, 1997;Miller, 1956) and shows large variation within and between persons (Eng et al, 2005;Vogel and Awh, 2008). One important factor contributing to interindividual differences in the WM performance range is the efficient control of WM contents (Freunberger et al, 2009;Gazzaley et al, , 2008Sauseng et al, 2009;Vogel et al, 2005), in particular, when both relevant and irrelevant information is present in the environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter-individual performance differences in younger and older adults differentially relate to amplitude modulations and phase stability of oscillations controlling working memory contents

et al. 2012

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Efficient encoding of relevant information and suppression of irrelevant information influence working memory (WM) performance, which is limited and declines in adulthood. A cued Sternberg WM task and electroencephalographic recordings (EEG) were used to investigate encoding and control operations in response to to-be-remembered (REM) and not-to-be-remembered (NREM) stimuli in younger and older adults. Younger and older adults selectively remembered REM items in a final recognition memory test. During early stages of stimulus processing, inter-trial phase stability was higher for REM than for NREM items in younger and older adults, presumably reflecting preferential encoding of REM items. At later stages, the oscillatory power of oscillations in the alpha/beta frequency range was higher for NREM than for REM, presumably reflecting the inhibitory top-down suppression of task-irrelevant information. Early phase stability was selectively related to working memory performance in younger adults and high-functioning older adults. The results of this study reveal the differential contributions of low-level feature binding and strategic control components to adult age differences in WM, and show that older adults with more youth-like processing dynamics tend to achieve higher levels of performance.

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“…First, they shed more light on the locus of capacity limits within the WM process, specifically on the question of whether performance is determined by encoding and/or retrieval processes. Traditional theories of WM capacity focus on resource demands during the front-end encoding phase, with quantitative limits defined in terms of both the number of items and the amount of information / complexity per item (Alvarez & Cavanagh;Eng et al, 2005). However, our data add to mounting evidence that comparison processes at retrieval are also pivotal in determining WM performance (Awh et al, 2007;Luria et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…However, this upper limit of four items can only be observed when items are perceptually very simple, such as coloured squares (Luck & Vogel, 1997). As stimulus complexity increases, WM performance decreases markedly and results in capacity estimates lower than four items (Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2004;Eng, Chen, & Jiang, 2005). Luria, Sessa, Gotler, Jolicoeur, & Dell'Acqua (2010) showed that the Sustained Posterior Contralateral Negativity (SPCN) amplitude (a large sustained negative waveform at posterior electrode sites elicited from around 300ms after encoding onset) reached asymptote at around 4 simple items, but peaked at only 2 complex items.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Similarity, not complexity, determines visual working memory performance.

Jackson

Linden

Roberts

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Increased similarity is thought to lead to greater comparison errors between items encoded into WM and the test item(s) presented at retrieval. However, previous studies have used different object categories to manipulate complexity and similarity, raising questions as to whether these effects are simply due to cross-category differences. For the first time, here we investigate the relationship between complexity and similarity in WM using the same stimulus category (abstract polygons). We used a delayed discrimination task to measure WM for 1-4 complex versus simple simultaneously presented items, and manipulated the similarity between the single test item at retrieval and the sample items at encoding. WM was poorer for complex than simple items only when the test item was similar to one of the encoding items, and not when it was dissimilar or identical. Our results provide clear support for re-interpretation of the complexity effect in WM as a similarity effect, and highlight the importance of the retrieval stage in governing WM performance. We discuss how these findings can be reconciled with current models of WM capacity limits. Permanent repository link

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Visual working memory for simple and complex visual stimuli

Cited by 69 publications

References 0 publications

Topographic Contribution of Early Visual Cortex to Short-Term Memory Consolidation: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study

Topographic Contribution of Early Visual Cortex to Short-Term Memory Consolidation: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study

Inter-individual performance differences in younger and older adults differentially relate to amplitude modulations and phase stability of oscillations controlling working memory contents

Similarity, not complexity, determines visual working memory performance.

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