Discrete fixed-resolution representations in visual working memory

@article{citeulike:2624125, abstract = {Limits on the storage capacity of working memory significantly affect cognitive abilities in a wide range of domains1, but the nature of these capacity limits has been elusive2. Some researchers have proposed that working memory stores a limited set of discrete, fixed-resolution representations3, whereas others have proposed that working memory consists of a pool of resources that can be allocated flexibly to provide either a small number of high-resolution representations or a large number of low-resolution representations4. Here we resolve this controversy by providing independent measures of capacity and resolution. We show that, when presented with more than a few simple objects, human observers store a high-resolution representation of a subset of the objects and retain no information about the others. Memory resolution varied over a narrow range that cannot be explained in terms of a general resource pool but can be well explained by a small set of discrete, fixed-resolution representations.}, author = {Zhang, Weiwei and Luck, Steven J. }, citeulike-article-id = {2624125}, journal = {Nature}, keywords = {slot, vwm}, posted-at = {2008-04-02 18:45:05}, priority = {2}, title = {Discrete fixed-resolution representations in visual working memory}, url = {http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature06860.html} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2624125 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2624125 TI - Discrete fixed-resolution representations in visual working memory JF - Nature N2 - Limits on the storage capacity of working memory significantly affect cognitive abilities in a wide range of domains1, but the nature of these capacity limits has been elusive2. Some researchers have proposed that working memory stores a limited set of discrete, fixed-resolution representations3, whereas others have proposed that working memory consists of a pool of resources that can be allocated flexibly to provide either a small number of high-resolution representations or a large number of low-resolution representations4. Here we resolve this controversy by providing independent measures of capacity and resolution. We show that, when presented with more than a few simple objects, human observers store a high-resolution representation of a subset of the objects and retain no information about the others. Memory resolution varied over a narrow range that cannot be explained in terms of a general resource pool but can be well explained by a small set of discrete, fixed-resolution representations. KW - slot KW - vwm AU - Zhang, Weiwei AU - Luck, Steven UR - http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature06860.html ER -