Do group ensemble statistics bias visual working memory for individual items? A registered replication of Brady and Alvarez (2011)

Abstract

We performed a registered and precise replication of Experiment 1 reported in Brady and Alvarez (Psychological Science, 22, 384–392, 2011). The original experiment found that participants, who were asked to memorize the size of differently colored circles, reported the size of a probed circle biased toward the mean size of the same-colored group. Because our previous three unpublished replication attempts failed to find this effect, we powered the present registered replication using a Bayes Factor Design Analysis such that it provided compelling evidence regarding the presence or absence of the reported bias with a high probability, even under the assumption of smaller effect sizes. Thus, we recruited 663 participants through Amazon Mechanical Turk. We observed both a significant bias and strong Bayesian evidence in favor of the existence of a bias over the null hypothesis. Thus, our results can be considered a successful replication of the original findings, although with a considerably smaller effect size. We discuss the role of data quality when recruiting participants with Amazon Mechanical Turk. The present findings corroborate the idea that memory representations of individual objects are influenced by summary statistics.

Topological change induces an interference effect in visual working memory

“…A considerable amount of research has demonstrated that the Gestalt grouping principles (connectedness, closure, color similarity, and spatial proximity) facilitate VWM performance (S. Chen, Kocsis, Liesefeld, Muller, & Conci, 2021 ; Peterson & Berryhill, 2013 ; Quinlan & Cohen, 2012 ; Woodman, Vecera, & Luck, 2003 ). Perceptual grouping provides an efficient way to combine multiple elements into global-level units ( Brady & Alvarez, 2011 ; Nie, Muller, & Conci, 2017 ; Papenmeier & Timm, 2021 ). From the perspective of global topological theory, these perceptual grouping principles could essentially be defined by topological properties.…”

Introduction to the special issue on ensemble perception

“…Section 7: The relation between ensemble perception and memory Although the field of visual memory is vast, there are increasingly apparent connections to ensemble representations because of their efficiency of representation and currency in perceptual experience. Papers by Papenmeier and Timm (2020) and Chen, Kocsis, et al (2020) explore how visual working memory may be impacted by summary statistics (see Brady & Alvarez, 2011). A Paper by Zepp et al (2021) tests ensembles in an iconic memory task, relating ensemble mean to central tendency recall (Dubé, 2019;Hollingworth, 1910).…”

The dissociable influence of social context on judgements of facial attractiveness and trustworthiness

“…Although ensemble coding allows the observer to accurately gauge the average characteristics of the group (Whitney & Yamanashi Leib, 2018), recent work has shown that observers are biased to remember individual items from the group as having been more alike the ensemble average than they truly were (Brady & Alvarez, 2011;Papenmeier & Timm, 2020). For example, observers will remember an individual face that had a neutral facial expression as having been happier than it really was, if it was seen among a group of smiling faces (Griffiths, Rhodes, Jeffery, Palermo, & Neumann, 2018).…”