Work

Dynamic Shifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human Vision

Year: 2008

Type: article

Abstract: Our ability to remember what we have seen is very limited. Most current views characterize this limit as a fixed number of items-only four objects-that can be held in visual working memory. We show that visual memory capacity is not fixed by the number of objects, but rather is a limited resource that is shared out dynamically between all items in the visual scene. This resource can be shifted flexibly between objects, with allocation biased by selective attention and toward targets of upcoming eye movements. The proportion of resources allocated to each item determines the precision with which it is remembered, a relation that we show is governed by a simple power law, allowing quantitative estimates of resource distribution in a scene.

Source: Science

DOI: 10.1126/science.1158023

Authors: Paul M. Bays, Masud Husain

Institutions: UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London

Language: English

Topic: Visual perception and processing mechanisms

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Wellcome Trust

Award: Visual Neglect following Stroke: From Components to Treatments.