A visual short-term memory advantage for objects of expertise.
Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is limited, especially for complex objects. Its capacity, however, is greater for faces than for other objects; this advantage may stem from the holistic nature of face processing. If the holistic processing explains this advantage, object expertise--which also relies on holistic processing--should endow experts with a VSTM advantage. The authors compared VSTM for cars among car experts and car novices. Car experts, but not car novices, demonstrated a VSTM advantage similar to that for faces; this advantage was orientation specific and was correlated with an individual's level of car expertise. Control experiments ruled out accounts based solely on verbal- or long-term memory representations. These findings suggest that the processing advantages afforded by visual expertise result in domain-specific increases in VSTM capacity, perhaps by allowing experts to maximize the use of an inherently limited VSTM system.
Curby
Kim M
KM
Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA. kim.curby@temple.edu
Glazek
Kuba
K
Gauthier
Isabel
I
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult