title: An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visual working memory.
abstract: Visual working memory is often modeled as having a fixed number of slots. We test this model by assessing the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) of participants in a visual-working-memory change-detection task. ROC plots yielded straight lines with a slope of 1.0, a tell-tale characteristic of all-or-none mnemonic representations. Formal model assessment yielded evidence highly consistent with a discrete fixed-capacity model of working memory for this task.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, 210 McAlester Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. rouderj@missouri.edu
authors.forename: Jeffrey N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Rouder
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Morey
authors.forename: Nelson
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cowan
authors.forename: Christopher E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Zwilling
authors.forename: Candice C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Morey
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Pratte
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012372:ROC Curve; D014796:Visual Perception