title: Visual Working Memory Resources Are Best Characterized as Dynamic, Quantifiable Mnemonic Traces.
abstract: Visual working memory (VWM) is a construct hypothesized to store a small amount of accurate perceptual information that can be brought to bear on a task. Much research concerns the construct's capacity and the precision of the information stored. Two prominent theories of VWM representation have emerged: slot-based and continuous-resource mechanisms. Prior modeling work suggests that a continuous resource that varies over trials with variable capacity and a potential to make localization errors best accounts for the empirical data. Questions remain regarding the variability in VWM capacity and precision. Using a novel eye-tracking paradigm, we demonstrate that VWM facilitates search and exhibits effects of fixation frequency and recency, particularly for prior targets. Whereas slot-based memory models cannot account for the human data, a novel continuous-resource model does capture the behavioral and eye tracking data, and identifies the relevant resource as item activation.
authors.affiliation: Oak Ridge Institute for Science & Education at AFRL.
authors.forename: Bella Z
authors.initials: BZ
authors.lastname: Veksler
authors.affiliation: Oak Ridge Institute for Science & Education at AFRL.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Boyd
authors.affiliation: U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
authors.forename: Christopher W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.affiliation: U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
authors.forename: Glenn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gunzelmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz.
authors.forename: Hansjörg
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Neth
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Science Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
authors.forename: Wayne D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Gray
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ACT-R; Eye tracking; Resource allocation; Visual search; Visual working memory