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| Volume 9, Number 3, Article 16, Pages 1-15 |
doi:10.1167/9.3.16 |
http://journalofvision.org/9/3/16/ |
ISSN 1534-7362 |
Estimated capacity of object files in visual short-term memory is not improved by retrieval cueing
Jun Saiki |
Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Japan |
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Hirofumi Miyatsuji |
Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Japan |
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Abstract
Visual short-term memory (VSTM) has been claimed to maintain three to five feature-bound object representations. Some results showing smaller capacity estimates for feature binding memory have been interpreted as the effects of interference in memory retrieval. However, change-detection tasks may not properly evaluate complex feature-bound representations such as triple conjunctions in VSTM. To understand the general type of feature-bound object representation, evaluation of triple conjunctions is critical. To test whether interference occurs in memory retrieval for complete object file representations in a VSTM task, we cued retrieval in novel paradigms that directly evaluate the memory for triple conjunctions, in comparison with a simple change-detection task. In our multiple object permanence tracking displays, observers monitored for a switch in feature combination between objects during an occlusion period, and we found that a retrieval cue provided no benefit with the triple conjunction tasks, but significant facilitation with the change-detection task, suggesting that low capacity estimates of object file memory in VSTM reflect a limit on maintenance, not retrieval.
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