Object-based representations govern both the storage of information in visual short-term memory and the retrieval of information from it

Philip Thomas Quinlan; Dale Cohen

doi:10.3758/s13423-011-0064-2

Object-based representations govern both the storage of information in visual short-term memory and the retrieval of information from it

Philip Thomas Quinlan, Dale Cohen

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Interest is growing in how information is retained in visual short-term memory (VSTM). We describe an experiment that assesses VSTM within the context of multidimensional signal detection theory. On every trial, participants were presented with a 250-ms display containing four colored shapes. They were then probed 900 ms later with a colored shape and made separate old/new judgments about the color and the shape. In any particular trial, one, both, or neither of the probed features had been presented. Perfor- mance differed according to whether both probed features belonged to a single object or to two different objects. When both probed features belonged to the same object, featural retrieval was better than would be predicted by independent feature storage. When both probed features belonged to two different objects, featural retrieval was worse than would be predicted by independent feature storage. We conclude that storage in and retrieval from VSTM operate on the basis of object-based representations.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	316-323
Number of pages	8
Journal	Psychonomic Bulletin and Review
Volume	18
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0064-2
Publication status	Published - Apr 2011

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abstract = "Interest is growing in how information is retained in visual short-term memory (VSTM). We describe an experiment that assesses VSTM within the context of multidimensional signal detection theory. On every trial, participants were presented with a 250-ms display containing four colored shapes. They were then probed 900 ms later with a colored shape and made separate old/new judgments about the color and the shape. In any particular trial, one, both, or neither of the probed features had been presented. Perfor- mance differed according to whether both probed features belonged to a single object or to two different objects. When both probed features belonged to the same object, featural retrieval was better than would be predicted by independent feature storage. When both probed features belonged to two different objects, featural retrieval was worse than would be predicted by independent feature storage. We conclude that storage in and retrieval from VSTM operate on the basis of object-based representations.",

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Object-based representations govern both the storage of information in visual short-term memory and the retrieval of information from it

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