Error-correcting dynamics in visual working memory

Panichello, Matthew F.; DePasquale, Brian; Buschman, Timothy J.

doi:10.1101/319103

Cited by 23 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(38 reference statements)

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“…; or simply as a natural result of the fact that noise in memory is relatively independent for each item (Fougnie et al, 2012;Schurgin et al 2020;Panichello, DePasquale, Pillow, & Buschman, 2018;Wilken & Ma, 2004). Thus, variation between multiple working memory items appears to be an unavoidable and natural byproduct of working memory maintenance and so it is important to consider what this means for memory driven attentional guidance.…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Guidance of attention by working memory is a matter of representational fidelity

Williams¹,

Tf²,

Vs³

2019

Preprint

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Previous research shows that a single visual working memory item can guide visual attention towards objects that match the feature held in mind, but the results are mixed as to whether this attentional guidance occurs for multiple concurrently active working memory items or not. Evidence in favor of a single-item guidance account has been taken as evidence for the structure of working memory comprising multiple distinct states where one item is prioritized over all others by being placed within a special focus of attention. The present study was designed to test attentional guidance effects for single and multiple working memory items, and to test the hypothesis that there are special distinct states in working memory. To do so, we asked participants to remember one or two colors, then perform a visual search task, and then report the items held in mind. We demonstrate that a single working memory item robustly biases attention towards items that match the color maintained in working memory during visual search (Exp. 1). Although we found reliable guidance when participants remembered two items, we show that these effects can largely be explained by a single item guiding attention on a proportion of trials (Exp. 2). Next, by precisely measuring memory for individual items we show that items naturally vary in their representational fidelity, and that only the item with the strongest representation guides attention (Exp. 3). Importantly, we demonstrate that no special focus of attention is necessary to explain these single-item guidance effects but that natural variation in the fidelity between items — which arises through independent noise — can account for the effects (Exp. 4). These findings challenge current models of working memory guidance and propose a simpler account for how working memory and attention interact: through natural variation in the representational fidelity of memories, one item tends to be the dominant item guiding attention on any individual trial.

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Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Guidance of attention by working memory is a matter of representational fidelity

Williams¹,

Tf²,

Vs³

2019

Preprint

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“…The build-up of serial dependencies during an experimental session has further implications for how we interpret their functional role. If serial dependence was an adaptation to exploit the world's tendency to remain stable 23 , and this adaptation could occur in the time scale of hour fractions (as recently shown for systematic biases in delayed-estimation of color tasks 27 ), memorizing a sequence of uncorrelated stimuli should decrease serial dependence in the course of an experimental session. Alternatively, if hard-wired mechanisms underlie serial dependence, we wouldn't expect any change.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…The reasoning is that because similar stimuli usually elicit similar behavior, the brain would incorporate mechanisms to exploit these patterns 23 . Along these lines, a recent study has shown that systematic biases in color working memory change in the course of an experimental session to adapt to stimulus statistics 27 , arguing that systematic biases seen in delayed-estimation of color reflect real-world statistics. If similar adaptive plasticity operated for serial dependence in the time scale of the experimental session, we would expect to see a reduction of serial biases as one is exposed to a sequence of uncorrelated stimuli.…”

Section: Color Serial Dependence Builds Up In the Course Of An Experimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some have further argued that serial dependence is of adaptive nature, changing its strength depending on the stimuli statistics 2,11,14,16,23 . Color, which is strongly correlated in natural scenes 24 , has never been studied with regard to its serial dependencies, possibly due to its strong systematic biases [25][26][27] . Similar to other perceptual biases for other visual features 28,29 , these systematic color biases adapt to stimulus statistics in the course of one experiment 27 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Color, which is strongly correlated in natural scenes 24 , has never been studied with regard to its serial dependencies, possibly due to its strong systematic biases [25][26][27] . Similar to other perceptual biases for other visual features 28,29 , these systematic color biases adapt to stimulus statistics in the course of one experiment 27 . This suggests that typical perceptual bias adaptations occur in time scales of minutes to hours.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Build-up of serial dependence in color working memory

Barbosa

Compte

2018

Preprint

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Serial dependence, how recent experiences bias our current estimations, has been described experimentally during delayed-estimation of many different visual features, with subjects tending to make estimates biased towards previous ones. It has been proposed that these attractive biases help perception stabilization in the face of correlated natural scene statistics as an adaptive mechanism, although this remains mostly theoretical. Color, which is strongly correlated in natural scenes, has never been studied with regard to its serial dependencies. Here, we found significant serial dependence in 7 out of 8 datasets with behavioral data of humans (total n=760) performing delayed-estimation of color with uncorrelated sequential stimuli. Moreover, serial dependence strength built up through the experimental session, suggesting metaplastic mechanisms operating at a slower time scale than previously proposed (e.g. short-term synaptic facilitation). Because, in contrast with natural scenes, stimuli were temporally uncorrelated, this build-up casts doubt on serial dependencies being an ongoing adaptation to the stable statistics of the environment.

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