A detection theory account of change detection.

By Patrick Wilken, Wei Ji Ma. Journal of Vision, 2004

794 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Previous studies have suggested that visual short-term memory (VSTM) has a storage limit of approximately four items. However, the type of high-threshold (HT) model used to derive this estimate is based on a number of assumptions that have been criticized in other experimental paradigms (e.g., visual search). Here we report findings from nine experiments in which VSTM for color, spatial frequency, and orientation was modeled using a signal detection theory (SDT) approach. In Experiments 1-6, two arrays composed of multiple stimulus elements were presented for 100 ms with a 1500 ms ISI. Observers were asked to report in a yes/no fashion whether there was any difference between the first and second arrays, and to rate their confidence in their response on a 1-4 scale. In Experiments 1-3, only one stimulus element difference could occur (T = 1) while set size was varied. In Experiments 4-6, set size was fixed while the number of stimuli that might change was varied (T = 1, 2, 3, and 4). Three general models were tested against the receiver operating characteristics generated by the six experiments. In addition to the HT model, two SDT models were tried: one assuming summation of signals prior to a decision, the other using a max rule. In Experiments 7-9, observers were asked to directly report the relevant feature attribute of a stimulus presented 1500 ms previously, from an array of varying set size. Overall, the results suggest that observers encode stimuli independently and in parallel, and that performance is limited by internal noise, which is a function of set size.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/deb990a44d97b9474e6a076537e375f8cb9e1a06

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Citations in the corpus

The precision of visual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource (2009, background): “However, in a recent study, Zhang and Luck (2008) presented results from a color report task (previously described by Wilken & Ma, 2004), which appear to provide important new evidence in favor of the fixed slot model.”
Discrete Capacity Limits in Visual Working Memory (2010, background): “By contrast, flexible resource models of capacity suggest that mnemonic resources can be allocated in a continuous fashion, without set limits on the number of items that can be represented [12 ,13].”
An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visual working memory (2008, background): “We also compared the fit of the fixed-capacity model to a signal-detection model of WM (7).”
The mind and brain of short-term memory. (2008, background): “For example, Wilken & Ma (2004) demonstrated that a signal-detection account of STM, in which STM capacity is primarily constrained by noise, better fit behavioral data than an item-based fixed-capacity model.”
Visual working memory representation as a topological defined perceptual object. (2019, background): “In contrast, another view proposes that capacity is a continuous resource that can be divided among large numbers of items (Bays, 2015; Ma, Husain, & Bays, 2014; Wilken & Ma, 2004).”
An Interference Model of Visual Working Memory (2017, methodology): “Participants’ task is to report a feature of that object on a continuous response scale, such as clicking on the remembered color on a color wheel, or reproducing the remembered orientation with a dial (Bays, Wu, & Husain, 2011; Wilken & Ma, 2004; Zhang & Luck, 2008).”
Hierarchical Encoding in Visual Working Memory (2010, background): “…independent unit and assume that items do not influence each others’ representations (Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2004; Bays, Catalao, & Husain, 2009; Luck & Vogel, 1997; Rouder et al., 2008; Wilken & Ma, 2004; Zhang & Luck, 2008; although see Lin & Luck, 2008, and Johnson, Spencer, Luck, & Schöner, 2009).”
Working memory as an emergent property of the mind and brain. (2006, positive): “Based on the results of a series of studies of change detection in VSTM, Wilken and Ma (2004) argue that the apparent capacity limitation in VSTM, which has been interpreted as evidence for a limited number of " slots " in a visual cache-like store, is more simply explained as a byproduct of noise i”
The neurovascular coupling in the attention during visual working memory (2023, background): “A limited number 4 of available vWM “slots” [3, 4] or limited resource allocation [5, 6] requires attention 5 processes that govern access to the mnemonic processes [7, 8].”