title: Estimated capacity of object files in visual short-term memory is not improved by retrieval cueing.
abstract: Visual short-term memory (VSTM) has been claimed to maintain three to five feature-bound object representations. Some results showing smaller capacity estimates for feature binding memory have been interpreted as the effects of interference in memory retrieval. However, change-detection tasks may not properly evaluate complex feature-bound representations such as triple conjunctions in VSTM. To understand the general type of feature-bound object representation, evaluation of triple conjunctions is critical. To test whether interference occurs in memory retrieval for complete object file representations in a VSTM task, we cued retrieval in novel paradigms that directly evaluate the memory for triple conjunctions, in comparison with a simple change-detection task. In our multiple object permanence tracking displays, observers monitored for a switch in feature combination between objects during an occlusion period, and we found that a retrieval cue provided no benefit with the triple conjunction tasks, but significant facilitation with the change-detection task, suggesting that low capacity estimates of object file memory in VSTM reflect a limit on maintenance, not retrieval.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. saiki@cv.jinkan.kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Saiki
authors.forename: Hirofumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miyatsuji
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011601:Psychophysics