Visual working memory phenomena based on categorical tasks replicate using a continuous measure: A simple interpretation and some methodological considerations

An increasingly popular method for investigating visuospatial working memory assumes stored features of objects such as color and orientation vary along continua subject to internal noise. It adapts the stimulus adjustment procedure from perceptual psychophysics to assess the precision with which st...

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Autores principales: Hu, Yanmei, Allen, Richard J., Baddeley, Alan D., Hitch, Graham J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10372120/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36754918
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13414-023-02656-x
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author Hu, Yanmei
Allen, Richard J.
Baddeley, Alan D.
Hitch, Graham J.
author_facet Hu, Yanmei
Allen, Richard J.
Baddeley, Alan D.
Hitch, Graham J.
author_sort Hu, Yanmei
collection PubMed
description An increasingly popular method for investigating visuospatial working memory assumes stored features of objects such as color and orientation vary along continua subject to internal noise. It adapts the stimulus adjustment procedure from perceptual psychophysics to assess the precision with which stored features are represented in memory. This contrasts with methods using discrete, categorical measures of feature retention. The current study examined the replicability of some phenomena documented using conventional methodology when assessed using a continuous measure of feature recall. These concern memory for a short series of objects and include effects of recency, prioritizing an individual object, and presenting an irrelevant additional object after the last item (a poststimulus ‘suffix’). In two experiments we find broadly similar results using a continuous measure of color-orientation binding to those obtained previously using categorical measures, with small differences we regard as minor. We interpret the convergence between methods in terms of a simple analogy between categorical memory and categorical perception whereby categorical retrieval involves the application of a discrete criterion to an underlying continuum of stored feature information. We conclude by discussing some of the advantages and limitations of continuous and categorical measures of retention.
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spelling pubmed-103721202023-07-28 Visual working memory phenomena based on categorical tasks replicate using a continuous measure: A simple interpretation and some methodological considerations Hu, Yanmei Allen, Richard J. Baddeley, Alan D. Hitch, Graham J. Atten Percept Psychophys Article An increasingly popular method for investigating visuospatial working memory assumes stored features of objects such as color and orientation vary along continua subject to internal noise. It adapts the stimulus adjustment procedure from perceptual psychophysics to assess the precision with which stored features are represented in memory. This contrasts with methods using discrete, categorical measures of feature retention. The current study examined the replicability of some phenomena documented using conventional methodology when assessed using a continuous measure of feature recall. These concern memory for a short series of objects and include effects of recency, prioritizing an individual object, and presenting an irrelevant additional object after the last item (a poststimulus ‘suffix’). In two experiments we find broadly similar results using a continuous measure of color-orientation binding to those obtained previously using categorical measures, with small differences we regard as minor. We interpret the convergence between methods in terms of a simple analogy between categorical memory and categorical perception whereby categorical retrieval involves the application of a discrete criterion to an underlying continuum of stored feature information. We conclude by discussing some of the advantages and limitations of continuous and categorical measures of retention. Springer US 2023-02-08 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC10372120/ /pubmed/36754918 http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13414-023-02656-x Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Hu, Yanmei
Allen, Richard J.
Baddeley, Alan D.
Hitch, Graham J.
Visual working memory phenomena based on categorical tasks replicate using a continuous measure: A simple interpretation and some methodological considerations
title Visual working memory phenomena based on categorical tasks replicate using a continuous measure: A simple interpretation and some methodological considerations
title_full Visual working memory phenomena based on categorical tasks replicate using a continuous measure: A simple interpretation and some methodological considerations
title_fullStr Visual working memory phenomena based on categorical tasks replicate using a continuous measure: A simple interpretation and some methodological considerations
title_full_unstemmed Visual working memory phenomena based on categorical tasks replicate using a continuous measure: A simple interpretation and some methodological considerations
title_short Visual working memory phenomena based on categorical tasks replicate using a continuous measure: A simple interpretation and some methodological considerations
title_sort visual working memory phenomena based on categorical tasks replicate using a continuous measure: a simple interpretation and some methodological considerations
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10372120/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36754918
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13414-023-02656-x
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