Visual Working Memory Capacity: From Psychophysics and Neurobiology to Individual Differences
TL;DR: For instance, this paper showed that visual working memory capacity is strongly correlated with overall cognitive ability, can be understood at the level of neural circuits, and is easily measured, and that capacity influences tasks ranging from saccade targeting to analogical reasoning.
About: This article is published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences.The article was published on 2013-08-01 and is currently open access. It has received 807 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Visual memory & Short-term memory.
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TL;DR: Information-based multivariate analyses of human functional MRI data typically find evidence for the temporary representation of stimuli in regions that also process this information in nonworking memory contexts.
Abstract: For more than 50 years, psychologists and neuroscientists have recognized the importance of a working memory to coordinate processing when multiple goals are active and to guide behavior with information that is not present in the immediate environment. In recent years, psychological theory and cognitive neuroscience data have converged on the idea that information is encoded into working memory by allocating attention to internal representations, whether semantic long-term memory (e.g., letters, digits, words), sensory, or motoric. Thus, information-based multivariate analyses of human functional MRI data typically find evidence for the temporary representation of stimuli in regions that also process this information in nonworking memory contexts. The prefrontal cortex (PFC), on the other hand, exerts control over behavior by biasing the salience of mnemonic representations and adjudicating among competing, context-dependent rules. The "control of the controller" emerges from a complex interplay between PFC and striatal circuits and ascending dopaminergic neuromodulatory signals.
1,080 citations
Cites background from "Visual Working Memory Capacity: Fro..."
...For excellent reviews on these issues see Ma et al. 2014 and Luck & Vogel 2013....
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TL;DR: Behavioral and emerging neural evidence for the proposed conceptualization of working memory as a limited resource that is distributed flexibly among all items to be maintained in memory are considered.
Abstract: Working memory is widely considered to be limited in capacity, holding a fixed, small number of items, such as Miller's 'magical number' seven or Cowan's four. It has recently been proposed that working memory might better be conceptualized as a limited resource that is distributed flexibly among all items to be maintained in memory. According to this view, the quality rather than the quantity of working memory representations determines performance. Here we consider behavioral and emerging neural evidence for this proposal.
847 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that whole-brain functional network strength provides a broadly applicable neuromarker of sustained attention, and predicts a clinical measure of attention—symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—from resting-state connectivity in an independent sample of children and adolescents.
Abstract: Although attention plays a ubiquitous role in perception and cognition, researchers lack a simple way to measure a person's overall attentional abilities. Because behavioral measures are diverse and difficult to standardize, we pursued a neuromarker of an important aspect of attention, sustained attention, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. To this end, we identified functional brain networks whose strength during a sustained attention task predicted individual differences in performance. Models based on these networks generalized to previously unseen individuals, even predicting performance from resting-state connectivity alone. Furthermore, these same models predicted a clinical measure of attention--symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder--from resting-state connectivity in an independent sample of children and adolescents. These results demonstrate that whole-brain functional network strength provides a broadly applicable neuromarker of sustained attention.
801 citations
TL;DR: This work proposes that gamma-band oscillations are generically involved in the maintenance of WM information, and addresses the role of cross-frequency coupling (CFC) in enabling alpha-Gamma and theta-gamma codes for distinct WM information.
667 citations
TL;DR: It is proposed that the propensity to produce persistent activity is a general feature of cortical networks and may have to shift focus from asking where working memory can be observed in the brain to how a range of specialized brain areas together transform sensory information into a delayed behavioral response.
510 citations
Cites background from "Visual Working Memory Capacity: Fro..."
...Behavioral models assume either a slot-based [180,181] or resource-based [182,183] limitation of capacity....
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TL;DR: It is demonstrated that it is possible to retain information about only four colours or orientations in visual working memory at one time, but it is also possible to retaining both the colour and the orientation of four objects, indicating that visual workingMemory stores integrated objects rather than individual features.
Abstract: Short-term memory storage can be divided into separate subsystems for verbal information and visual information, and recent studies have begun to delineate the neural substrates of these working-memory systems. Although the verbal storage system has been well characterized, the storage capacity of visual working memory has not yet been established for simple, suprathreshold features or for conjunctions of features. Here we demonstrate that it is possible to retain information about only four colours or orientations in visual working memory at one time. However, it is also possible to retain both the colour and the orientation of four objects, indicating that visual working memory stores integrated objects rather than individual features. Indeed, objects defined by a conjunction of four features can be retained in working memory just as well as single-feature objects, allowing sixteen individual features to be retained when distributed across four objects. Thus, the capacity of visual working memory must be understood in terms of integrated objects rather than individual features, which places significant constraints on cognitive and neurobiological models of the temporary storage of visual information.
3,608 citations
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: The authors argue that working memory capacity and fluid intelligence reflect the ability to keep a representation active, particularly in the face of interference and distraction, and discuss the relationship of this capability to controlled attention, and the functions of the prefrontal cortex.
Abstract: A study was conducted in which 133 participants performed 11 memory tasks (some thought to reflect working memory and some thought to reflect short-term memory), 2 tests of general fluid intelligence, and the Verbal and Quantitative Scholastic Aptitude Tests. Structural equation modeling suggested that short-term and working memories reflect separate but highly related constructs and that many of the tasks used in the literature as working memory tasks reflect a common construct. Working memory shows a strong connection to fluid intelligence, but short-term memory does not. A theory of working memory capacity and general fluid intelligence is proposed: The authors argue that working memory capacity and fluid intelligence reflect the ability to keep a representation active, particularly in the face of interference and distraction. The authors also discuss the relationship of this capability to controlled attention, and the functions of the prefrontal cortex.
2,611 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that working memory capacity and fluid intelligence reflect the ability to keep a representation active, particularly in the face of interference and distraction, and discuss the relationship of this capability to controlled attention, and the functions of the prefrontal cortex.
Abstract: A study was conducted in which 133 participants performed 11 memory tasks (some thought to reflect working memory and some thought to reflect short-term memory), 2 tests of general fluid intelligence, and the Verbal and Quantitative Scholastic Aptitude Tests. Structural equation modeling suggested that short-term and working memories reflect separate but highly related constructs and that many of the tasks used in the literature as working memory tasks reflect a common construct. Working memory shows a strong connection to fluid intelligence, but short-term memory does not. A theory of working memory capacity and general fluid intelligence is proposed: The authors argue that working memory capacity and fluid intelligence reflect the ability to keep a representation active, particularly in the face of interference and distraction. The authors also discuss the relationship of this capability to controlled attention, and the functions of the prefrontal cortex.
2,582 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the relationship between reasoning ability and working-memory capacity was investigated in four separate studies (N = 723, 412, 415, and 594) and they found that reasoning ability correlated comparatively highly with general knowledge; working memory capacity correlated comparatively high with processing speed.
1,782 citations
TL;DR: This work provides electrophysiological evidence for lateralized activity in humans that reflects the encoding and maintenance of items in visual memory and provides a strong neurophysiological predictor of an individual's capacity, allowing a direct relationship between neural activity and memory capacity.
Abstract: Contrary to our rich phenomenological visual experience, our visual short-term memory system can maintain representations of only three to four objects at any given moment. For over a century, the capacity of visual memory has been shown to vary substantially across individuals, ranging from 1.5 to about 5 objects. Although numerous studies have recently begun to characterize the neural substrates of visual memory processes, a neurophysiological index of storage capacity limitations has not yet been established. Here, we provide electrophysiological evidence for lateralized activity in humans that reflects the encoding and maintenance of items in visual memory. The amplitude of this activity is strongly modulated by the number of objects being held in the memory at the time, but approaches a limit asymptotically for arrays that meet or exceed storage capacity. Indeed, the precise limit is determined by each individual's memory capacity, such that the activity from low-capacity individuals reaches this plateau much sooner than that from high-capacity individuals. Consequently, this measure provides a strong neurophysiological predictor of an individual's capacity, allowing the demonstration of a direct relationship between neural activity and memory capacity.
1,656 citations