The capacity of visual working memory for features and conjunctions
The capacity of visual working memory for features and conjunctions
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/36846
复制
发表时间：
1997-11-20
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Vogel, EK
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Luck, SJ;Vogel, EK
短期记忆存储可以分为言语信息和视觉信息的独立子系统（1），最近的研究已经开始描绘这些工作记忆系统的神经基质（2-6）。虽然言语存储系统已被很好地表征，视觉工作记忆的存储容量尚未建立简单的，阈上功能或连接的功能。在这里，我们证明了在视觉工作记忆中一次只保留四种颜色或方向的信息是可能的。然而，也有可能同时保留四个物体的颜色和方向，这表明视觉工作记忆存储的是整体物体，而不是单个特征。事实上，由四个特征的结合定义的对象可以像单个特征对象一样保留在工作记忆中，当分布在四个对象上时，允许保留十六个单独的特征。因此，视觉工作记忆的能力必须从整体对象而不是个体特征的角度来理解，这对视觉信息临时存储的认知和神经生物学模型产生了重大限制。
Short-term memory storage can be divided into separate subsystems for verbal information and visual information(1), and recent studies have begun to delineate the neural substrates of these working-memory systems(2-6). 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(7).