Discrete fixed-resolution representations in visual working memory
Discrete fixed-resolution representations in visual working memory
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DOI：
10.1038/nature06860
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发表时间：
2008-05-08
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Luck, Steven J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Zhang, Weiwei;Luck, Steven J.
工作记忆存储容量的限制在很大范围内显著影响认知能力(1)，但这些容量限制的性质一直难以捉摸(2)。一些研究人员提出，工作记忆存储一组有限的离散的、固定分辨率的表征(3)，而另一些研究人员提出，工作记忆由一组资源组成，可以灵活地分配，以提供少量的高分辨率表征或大量的低分辨率表征(4)。在这里，我们通过提供独立的能力和解决措施来解决这一争议。我们发现，当呈现多个简单对象时，人类观察者存储对象子集的高分辨率表示，而不保留关于其他对象的信息。内存分辨率在一个很小的范围内变化，这不能用一般的资源池来解释，但可以用一小部分离散的、固定分辨率的表示来很好地解释。
Limits on the storage capacity of working memory significantly affect cognitive abilities in a wide range of domains(1), but the nature of these capacity limits has been elusive(2). Some researchers have proposed that working memory stores a limited set of discrete, fixed- resolution representations(3), whereas others have proposed that working memory consists of a pool of resources that can be allocated flexibly to provide either a small number of high-resolution representations or a large number of low- resolution representations(4). Here we resolve this controversy by providing independent measures of capacity and resolution. We show that, when presented with more than a few simple objects, human observers store a high- resolution representation of a subset of the objects and retain no information about the others. Memory resolution varied over a narrow range that cannot be explained in terms of a general resource pool but can be well explained by a small set of discrete, fixed- resolution representations.