Similarity, not complexity, determines visual working memory performance.

Jackson, Mike; Linden, David Edmund Johannes; Roberts, Mark; Kriegeskorte, Nikolaus; Haenschel, Corinna

doi:10.1037/xlm0000125

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Visuospatial WM for faces in this task may therefore be more resource demanding than the image-based matching of non-manipulated objects or fractals employed by Pertzov and colleagues, and potentially be more vulnerable to interference at recall by an additional face identification task. Perceptual similarity effects between the encoding faces and the foil face would also have to be considered, as increased similarity between items has been shown to decrease visual recall accuracy (e.g., Jackson, Linden, Roberts, Kriegeskorte, & Haenschel, 2015 ; Wood, 2011 ). These are key points to consider for future research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remembering who was where: A happy expression advantage for face identity-location binding in working memory.

Spotorno¹,

Evans²,

Jackson³

2018

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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It is well established that visual working memory (WM) for face identity is enhanced when faces display threatening versus nonthreatening expressions. During social interaction, it is also important to bind person identity with location information in WM to remember who was where, but we lack a clear understanding of how emotional expression influences this. Here, we conducted two touchscreen experiments to investigate how angry versus happy expressions displayed at encoding influenced the precision with which participants relocated a single neutral test face to its original position. Maintenance interval was manipulated (Experiment 2; 1 s, 3 s, 6 s) to assess durability of binding. In both experiments, relocation accuracy was enhanced when faces were happy versus angry, and this happy benefit endured from 1-s to 6-s maintenance interval. Eye movement measures during encoding showed no convincing effects of oculomotor behavior that could readily explain the happy benefit. However, accuracy in general was improved, and the happy benefit was strongest for the last, most recent face fixated at encoding. Improved, durable binding of who was where in the presence of a happy expression may reflect the importance of prosocial navigation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remembering who was where: A happy expression advantage for face identity-location binding in working memory.

Spotorno¹,

Evans²,

Jackson³

2018

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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“…VWM tends to be poorer for complex relative to simple items (Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2004), especially when stimulus presentation duration is short (Eng et al, 2005) or sample-test similarity is high (Awh, Barton, & Vogel, 2007;Jackson, Linden, Roberts, Kriegeskorte, & Haenschel, 2015). However, by contrast to lower storage capacity that is observed with complex but meaningless items (i.e., random polygons or shaded cubes), capacity of visual memory for complex but meaningful objects such as faces and realworld objects is comparable with or even larger than that observed for simple items (Brady, Störmer, & Alvarez, 2016;Curby & Gauthier, 2007;Endress & Potter, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Gradual formation of visual working memory representations of motion directions

Tsuda

Saiki

2018

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Although it is well accepted that the formation of visual working memory (VWM) representations from simple static features is a rapid and effortless process that completes within several hundred milliseconds, the storage of motion information in VWM within that time scale can be challenging due to the limited processing capacity of the visual system. Memory formation can also be demanding especially when motion stimuli are visually complex. Here, we investigated whether the formation of VWM representations of motion direction is more gradual than that of static orientation and examined the effects of stimulus complexity on that process. To address these issues, we examined how the number and the precision of stored items in VWM develop over time by using a continuous report procedure. Results showed that while a viewing duration of several seconds was required for the successful storage of multiple motion directions in VWM regardless of motion complexity, the accumulation of memory precision was much slower when the motion stimulus was visually complex (Experiments 1 & 2). Additional experiments showed that the difference in memory performance for simple and complex motion stimuli cannot be explained by differences in signal-to-noise levels of the stimulus (Experiment 3). These results demonstrate remarkable temporal limitations in the formation of VWM representations for dynamic objects, and further show how this process is affected by stimulus properties such as visual complexity and signal-to-noise levels.

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“…shapes, Jackson and colleagues found poorer WM when the test item was similar to but different from one of the faces at encoding (i.e., a similar nonmatch), relative to when the test item was a dissimilar nonmatch (Jackson, Linden, Roberts, Kriegeskorte, & Haenschel, 2015). The paradigm used in that study was identical to the one used here in Experiment 1, presenting 1-4 shapes simultaneously for encoding and a single test item at retrieval.…”

Section: Face Wm Load Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 78%

Face working memory deficits in developmental prosopagnosia: Tests of encoding limits and updating processes

2017

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Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a condition in which individuals experience life-long problems recognising faces. In recent years, unpacking the nature of the impairments of this population has been the focus of numerous studies. One focus has been on the nature of face-based memory impairments for such individuals, with the onus being mainly on long-term memory deficits. Far fewer have considered the nature of face-based working memory (WM) impairments for DP cases, and the current study seeks to address this. One recent WM study (Shah et al., 2015) reported that the maintenance of faces over time in WM was spared among DPs, and argued instead that face encoding was limited in some way. Here we further explore the nature of face-based WM impairments in DP across two experiments designed to probe encoding limits (Experiment 1) and WM updating processes (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1 we manipulated the number of faces (1-4) to encode into WM and presented these simultaneously. We reasoned that if face encoding among DPs was inefficient or imprecise, then increasing encoding demands (WM load) would disproportionately impair WM accuracy compared to controls. However, we found that DP cases were consistently poorer than controls across all face load conditions, suggesting that front-end encoding problems are only part of the deficit. In Experiment 2, to measure updating four faces were shown sequentially for encoding into WM and accuracy was analysed as a function of whether the test face had been presented first, second, third or last in the encoding sequence. DPs had significantly poorer WM than controls for later faces but not the first face encoded in the sequence, and showed an attenuated recency effect. To account for these findings, we discuss the potential role of comparison processes at retrieval, impairments in configural face processing, and the impact of noise in the face identification system of individuals with DP.

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Similarity, not complexity, determines visual working memory performance.

Cited by 18 publications

References 24 publications

Remembering who was where: A happy expression advantage for face identity-location binding in working memory.

Remembering who was where: A happy expression advantage for face identity-location binding in working memory.

Gradual formation of visual working memory representations of motion directions

Face working memory deficits in developmental prosopagnosia: Tests of encoding limits and updating processes

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