Working memory for spatial relations

Across many areas of study in cognition, the capacity of working memory (WM) is widely agreed to be roughly 3-5 items: 3-5 objects (i.e., bound collections of object features) in the literature on visual WM, or 3-5 role bindings (i.e., objects in specific relational roles) in the literature on memory and reasoning. Three experiments investigated the capacity of observers’ WM for the spatial relations among objects in a visual display and the results suggest that the “items” in WM are neither simply objects nor simply role bindings. The results of Experiment 1 are most consistent with a model that treats an “item” is visual WM as an object, along with the roles of all its relations to one other object. Experiment 2 compared observers’ WM for object size to their memory for relative size and provided evidence that observers compute and store objects’ relations, per se, (rather than just absolute size) in WM. Experiment 3 tested and confirmed several more nuanced predictions of the model supported by Experiment 1. Together, these findings suggest that objects are stored in visual WM in pairs (along with all the relations between the object in a pair), and that, from the perspective of WM, a given object in one pair is not the same “item” at that same object in a different pair.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Glosson, Pamela

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hummel, John E.

• visual relations
• spatial relations
• visual working memory
• objects
• role bindings

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2013 Pamela Glosson

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/46704

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/46704