Memory deficit induced by overload

我们调查了超载导致的视觉工作记忆(VWM)缺陷，发现VWM容量在不同记忆集大小、年龄和个体之间存在广泛差异。在记忆容量低的年轻人和老年人中，VWM中容纳的物品数量都显著减少，但在高容量个体中则不是这样，当集合大小远远超过VWM容量的限制时。此外，通过增加VWM编码时间，这种缺陷在低容量年轻人中得到了缓解，但在低容量老年人中并未得到缓解。因此，低容量个体很可能表现出由于超载而导致的VWM能力的下降，而衰老加剧了这种缺陷，以至于不能通过简单地增加编码时间来恢复。我们的发现挑战了VWM容量是固定和稳定的主流假设，鼓励对VWM容量受固定数量的不同槽限制的严格观点的修正，在这些槽中存储高分辨率对象表示。

We investigated visual working memory (VWM) deficit induced by overload, and found wide variability in VWM capacity across memory set sizes, age, and individuals. A marked decrease in the number of objects held in VWM was observed in both younger and older adults with low memory capacity, but not among high-capacity individuals, when set size went well beyond the limits of VWM capacity. In addition, this deficit was alleviated among low-capacity younger adults, but not among low-capacity older adults, by increasing VWM encoding time. Thus, low-capacity individuals are likely to show decreases in VWM capacity induced by overload, and aging exacerbates this deficit such that it cannot be recovered by simply increasing encoding time. Our findings challenge the prevailing assumption that VWM capacity is fixed and stable, encouraging a revision to the strict view that VWM capacity is constrained by a fixed number of distinct slots in which high-resolution object representations are stored.