CAREER: Spatial Ensemble Structure in Visual Working Memory

视觉工作记忆允许人们在脑海中短暂地记住视觉信息，使其可用于其他认知任务。对这种记忆系统的研究发现，人们只能够存储我们在大多数视觉场景中看到的众多对象中的一小部分。然而，记忆并不只保存着物体--我们还记得大规模的空间关系(“空间集合”)，这些关系为我们提供了有关物体所在位置以及它们的平均状态的信息。该项目将引入新的研究方法，旨在收集关于集体和单个物体的视觉工作记忆的信息。视觉工作记忆对日常功能至关重要，与液态智力和学业成就密切相关。工作记忆障碍在AHDH和精神分裂症等临床疾病中很常见。因此，了解人类视觉系统如何在工作记忆中存储关于物体和整体的信息，对于了解个体之间的重要差异以及提高我们对视觉技能的理解至关重要，例如涉及驾驶和其他复杂任务的视觉技能，这些任务需要记住和监控多个物体及其各自的位置。了解物体和整体记忆是如何相互作用的，也可以为人工视觉系统的设计提供信息。该研究计划包括一个重要的推广部分，包括从代表性不足的群体中招募和培训第一代大学生，以及开发工具，允许科学家进行在线实验并教他们如何进行实验。研究旨在广泛了解工作记忆系统是如何利用群体结构的。首先，该研究考察了物体的记忆是否可以从集合结构的记忆中分离出来(例如，当集合记忆受损时，对象的记忆是否可以被保留)。其次，这项研究询问了哪些更广泛的认知能力可能与合奏的工作记忆有关。特别是，它关注场景识别，假设视觉场景的快速识别可能与工作记忆中的集体表征有关。为了研究这些问题，将使用一套严格的实验和计算技术，包括基于3D视点操作的新范式，以及可用于分离对象和总体对工作记忆任务绩效的贡献的视觉记忆的概率/贝叶斯模型。这些技术将允许对群体和个体物体在视觉工作记忆中相互作用的方式以及它们与更广泛的认知能力的联系方式进行定量测试。

Visual working memory allows people to hold visual information in mind for a brief period of time, making it available for other cognitive tasks. Research investigating this memory system has found that people are capable of storing only a few of the many objects that we see in most visual scenes. However, memory does not hold only objects - we also remember large-scale spatial relationships ("spatial ensembles") that provide us with information about where objects are located and what they are like on average. The project will introduce new research methods designed to gather information about visual working memory for ensembles as well as individual objects. Visual working memory is critical for everyday functioning and closely related to fluid intelligence and academic achievement. Disruptions of working memory are common in clinical disorders like AHDH and schizophrenia. Thus, understanding how the human visual system stores information about objects and ensembles in working memory is critical for understanding important differences between individuals as well as improving our understanding of visual skills, such as those involved in driving and other complex tasks that require remembering and monitoring multiple objects and their respective locations. Understanding how memories for objects and ensembles interact can also inform the design of artificial vision systems. The research plan includes a significant outreach component, featuring both the recruitment and training of first-generation college students from underrepresented groups and the development of tools to allow scientists to conduct online experiments and teach them how to do so.The research aims to broadly understand how the working memory system makes use of ensemble structure. First, the research investigates whether memory for objects is dissociable from memory for ensemble structure (e.g., whether object memory can be preserved when ensemble memory is impaired). Second, the research asks what broader cognitive capacities might be related to working memory for ensembles. In particular, it focuses on scene recognition, with the hypothesis that rapid recognition of visual scenes may be related to ensemble representations in working memory. To investigate these issues, a set of rigorous experimental and computational techniques will be used, including a novel paradigm based on 3d-viewpoint manipulations, as well as probabilistic/Bayesian models of visual memory that can be used to dissociate object vs. ensemble contributions to performance on working memory tasks. These techniques will allow for quantitative tests of the way in which ensembles and individual objects interact in visual working memory and the way in which they relate to broader cognitive abilities.