title: Human working memory for shapes of radial frequency patterns.
abstract: We investigated the human working memory for contour shapes. The memory items were radial frequency patterns (Wilkinson, Wilson, & Habak, 1998), which require global pooling of local contour orientation at the 'intermediate' levels of visual system. We used change-detection paradigm and d' measure to determine the forgetting of a single pattern as a function of a retention interval, and the storage capacity for several simultaneously presented patterns. Results showed that the memory trace of a single shape is not so robust as the representations of simple features. Further, the working memory capacity for contour shapes was very low: just one item could be retained accurately.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, PO Box 9 (Siltavuorenpenger 20 D), 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. viljami.salmela@helsinki.fi
authors.forename: Viljami R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Salmela
authors.forename: Tommi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mäkelä
authors.forename: Jussi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Saarinen
mesh_terms: D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012684:Sensory Thresholds