ROC Studies of Visual Working Memory

描述(申请人提供)：在视觉工作记忆中保持短时间的信息是自然视觉和各种认知功能的关键功能。然而，在许多精神疾病(如精神分裂症和抑郁症)和神经疾病(如自闭症、多动症和健忘症)中，工作记忆可能会受到选择性的损害。这项拟议的研究集中在通过整合健康参与者的数量和质量的测量，以及通过剔除健忘症和精神分裂症患者的项目和关联信息中的选择性损害来更好地表征存储在VWM中的信息。工作记忆通常被认为不同于长期记忆，因为它反映了一个由有限数量的项目组成的有限容量系统。然而，最近的研究表明，视觉工作记忆可能能够存储来自视觉场景的大量信息，因此工作记忆的容量实际上可能是无限的。这项拟议的研究旨在通过借用长期记忆研究中的定量心理物理学方法来对比这两种截然相反的观点。支撑这两个对立观点的量化模型将与一个新提出的模型进行对比测试，该模型独立地衡量工作记忆表征的数量和质量。然后，这种方法将被应用于健忘症和精神分裂症患者，以解决工作记忆中的另一个主要开放问题。具体地说，工作记忆中的简单特征(例如草莓的形状)和关系信息(例如草莓在盒子里的位置和颜色)是否受到不同机制的支持？这一建议的两个研究目标都是以两个培训目标为基础并与之相结合的。一是将长时记忆研究中的理论构思和量化方法应用于工作记忆的研究。第二是接受记忆神经心理学研究方面的培训，并将其应用到拟议的工作记忆工作中。这一奖学金对申请者的长期职业发展至关重要，申请者寻求开发一个独立的研究计划，将定量心理物理学和翻译方法结合起来，研究正常和异常的记忆功能。 与公共健康相关：在视觉工作记忆中短时间内保持信息不仅支持自然视觉(例如，在眼球运动中保持眼跳目标)和各种认知功能(例如，语言理解和一般智力)，而且在许多精神疾病(例如精神分裂症)和神经疾病(例如自闭症和多动症)中也遭受严重损害。这项拟议的研究评估了一种通过整合工作记忆的两个不同方面--数量和质量--的测量来表征工作记忆的新方法，这两个方面一直是关于工作记忆局限性的两个主要的对立假说的基础。通过应用所提出的模型来探索内侧颞叶受损的健忘症患者和精神分裂症患者工作记忆中客体和关联信息的可能损害，该方法的重要性被具体化。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Maintenance of information over a short period of time in visual working memory is a critical function for natural vision and various cognitive functions. However, working memory can be selectively impaired in many psychiatric (e.g., schizophrenia and depression) and neurological (e.g., Autism, ADHD, and Amnesic) conditions. The proposed research focuses on a better characterization of information stored in VWM by integrating both measures of quantity and quality in healthy participants, and by factoring out selective impairments in item and associative information on amnesic and schizophrenia patients. Working memory is typically assumed to differ from long-term memory in the sense that it reflects a limited capacity system consisting of a limited number of items. However, recent work has suggested that visual working memory may be able to store a rich amount of information from visual scenes and thus the capacity of working memory may be virtually unlimited. The proposed research aims to contrast these two opposing views by using quantitative psychophysical methods borrowed from research on long-term memory. Quantitative models that underlie these two opposing views will be tested against a newly proposed model that independently measures the quantity and quality of working memory representations. This approach will then be applied to amnesic and schizophrenia patients to address another major open issue in working memory. Specifically, are simple features (e.g., the shape of a strawberry) and relational information (e.g., the location and color of a strawberry in a box) in working memory supported by different mechanisms? Both research aims of this proposal are grounded on and integrated with two training goals. The first is to apply the theoretical constructs and quantitative methods from long-term memory studies to the proposed study on working memory. The second is to receive training in neuropsychological studies of memory and to apply that to the proposed work in working memory. This fellowship is vital for the long-term career development of the applicant, who seeks to develop an independent research program that combines quantitative psychophysics and translational approaches to study normal and abnormal memory functioning. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Maintenance of information over a short period of time in visual working memory not only supports natural vision (e.g., maintaining saccade targets across eye movements) and various cognitive functions (e.g., language comprehension and general intelligence), but also suffers severe impairment in many psychiatric (e.g., schizophrenia) and neurological (e.g., autism and ADHD) conditions. The proposed research assesses a novel way of characterizing working memory by integrating measures of two different aspects of working memory--quantity and quality--which have been the foundations for two major opposing hypotheses about limitations in working memory. The importance of this approach is made concrete by applying the proposed model to explore the possible impairment in object and associative information in working memory in amnesic patients who have suffered medial temporal lobe damage and schizophrenia patients.