Averaging effects in spatial working memory do not depend on stored ensemble statistics
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Recall from visual working memory shows averaging affects. For example, the recalled position of a
memorised item is biased toward the average location of all items in a memory array. A recent
suggestion is that averaging reflects an attempt to optimise single-item recall by exploiting
ensemble statistics. This proposal predicts that the average location is memorised
independently from that of individual items. We compared normal subjects’ perceptual
estimates of the centre of mass (COM) of three-stimulus dot arrays, COM from recall and
single items from recall. Perceptual estimates of COM showed a systematic bias toward the
array’s incenter, COM recall did not show this bias. The precision of COM recall was lower
than COM perceptual estimates and higher than single item recall. In a right hemisphere patient
with left hemianopia and neglect, COM perceptual estimates were systematically biased
contralesionally, while COM recalls were biased ipsilesionally, confirming the dissociation
between perception and recall. These findings suggest that COM is recalled by averaging the
memorised items’ positions rather than by retrieving its memorised perceptual estimate.
Averaging in spatial recall may arise instead from a reference frame transformation, ensuring
that the relative position of the item in the sample array is recalled.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 14 |
Journal | Perception |
Volume | 44 |
Issue number | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 2015 |