Mechanisms of visual memory decay

描述(申请人提供)：这项研究的目标是描述调节短期视觉记忆衰退的机制。该项目将涉及进行一系列心理物理实验，以确定在视觉信息处理的标准信号检测模型的背景下记忆衰退的影响。目前几乎所有的短期视觉记忆模型所做的一个关键假设是，时间衰退是由于内部噪音随着时间的推移而逐渐增加。我的初步实验结果表明，这一假设实际上是不正确的，短期视觉记忆衰退是一个确定性的过程，而不是随机的过程。这一结果很难与目前的短期视觉记忆模型相一致，并可能对调节衰变过程的各种机制施加新的强有力的限制。因此，拟议研究的一个目标将是复制和扩展我的初步实验。第二个目标将是进行额外的一系列实验，以确定导致短期视觉记忆衰退的确定性过程的具体性质。最终，这项工作的长期目标将是开发一个可行的短期视觉记忆衰退的量化模型。刻画视觉短时记忆保持的机制对于形成对人类视觉信息加工的更完整的理解具有重要的理论意义。本工作更直接的与健康相关的应用是通知技术的发展，以提高医学成像技术员作出需要在短期视觉记忆中保留信息的比较判断的能力(例如，在X射线显示器之间进行比较等)。

DESCRIPTION (DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this research is to characterize the mechanisms that mediate short-term visual memory decay. The project will involve conducting a series of psychophysical experiments to pinpoint the effects of memory decay within the context of a standard signal detection model of visual information processing. One of the key assumptions made by nearly all current models of short-term visual memory is that temporal decay is due to a progressive increase in internal noise over time. My preliminary results from pilot experiments suggest that this assumption is in fact incorrect, and that short-term visual memory decay is a deterministic rather than stochastic process. This result is difficult to reconcile with current models of short-term visual memory, and potentially places strong new constraints on the kinds of mechanisms that mediate the decay process. Thus, one goal of the proposed research will be to replicate and extend my preliminary experiments. A second goal will be to conduct an additional series of experiments to determine the specific nature of the deterministic processes that are responsible for short-term visual memory decay. Ultimately, the long-term goal of this work will be to develop a viable quantitative model of short-term visual memory decay. Characterizing the mechanisms involved in the retention of visual short-term memory is of central theoretical importance to forming a more complete understanding of human visual information processing. A more direct health-related application of the present work is to inform the development of techniques to improve the ability of medical imaging technologists to make comparative judgments that require retention of information in short-term visual memory (e.g., making comparisons amongst X-ray displays, etc.).