scholarly journals Ensemble clustering in visual working memory biases location memories and reduces the Weber noise of relative positions

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy F. Lew ◽  
Edward Vul
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Ensemble Clustering ◽  
Memory Biases

scholarly journals Perceptual Comparisons Modulate Memory Biases Induced by Overlapping Visual Input

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Saito ◽  
Matthew Kolisnyk ◽  
Keisuke Fukuda
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Input ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Memory Biases ◽  
Physical Similarity

Despite the active neural mechanisms that support the temporary maintenance of stimulus-specific information, visual working memory (VWM) content can be systematically biased towards novel perceptual input. These memory biases are commonly attributed to interference that arises when perceptual input is physically similar to current VWM content. However, recent work has suggested that deliberately comparing the similarity of VWM representations to novel perceptual input modulates the size of memory biases above and beyond stimulus-driven effects. Here, we sought to determine the modulatory nature of deliberate perceptual comparisons by comparing the size of memory biases following deliberate comparisons to those induced instead when novel perceptual input is ignored (Experiment 1) or encoded into VWM (Experiment 2). We find that individuals reported larger attraction biases in their VWM representation following deliberate perceptual comparisons than when they ignored or remembered the perceptual input. An analysis of participants’ perceptual comparisons revealed that memory biases were amplified when the perceptual input was endorsed as similar—but not dissimilar—to the current VWM representation. This pattern persisted even after the physical similarity between the VWM representation and perceptual input was matched across trials, confirming that perceptual comparisons themselves played a causal role in modulating memory biases. Together, these findings are consistent with the view that using a VWM representation to evaluate novel perceptual input risks exaggerating the featural overlap between them.

Memory Fidelity Reveals Qualitative Changes in Interactions Between Items in Visual Working Memory

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762199736
Author(s):  
Zachary Lively ◽  
Maria M. Robinson ◽  
Aaron S. Benjamin
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Subjective Ratings ◽  
Memory Biases ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Trial Basis ◽  
Qualitative Changes

Memory for objects in a display sometimes reveals attraction—the objects are remembered as more similar to one another than they actually were—and sometimes reveals repulsion—the objects are remembered as more different from one another. The conditions that lead to these opposing memory biases are poorly understood; there is no theoretical framework that explains these contrasting dynamics. In three experiments (each N = 30 adults), we demonstrate that memory fidelity provides a unifying dimension that accommodates the existence of both types of visual working memory interactions. We show that either attraction or repulsion can arise simply as a function of manipulations of memory fidelity. We also demonstrate that subjective ratings of fidelity predict the presence of attraction or repulsion on a trial-by-trial basis. We discuss how these results bear on computational models of visual working memory and contextualize these results within the literature of attraction and repulsion effects in long-term memory and perception.

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