Abstract
Perceptual similarity is an important property of multiple stimuli. Its computation supports a wide range of cognitive functions, including reasoning, categorization, and memory recognition. It is important, therefore, to determine why previous research has found conflicting effects of inter-item similarity on visual working memory. Studies reporting a similarity advantage have used simple stimuli whose similarity varied along a featural continuum. Studies reporting a similarity disadvantage have used complex stimuli from either a single or multiple categories. To elucidate stimulus conditions for similarity effects in visual working memory, we tested memory for complex stimuli (faces) whose similarity varied along a morph continuum. Participants encoded 3 morphs generated from a single face identity in the similar condition, or 3 morphs generated from different face identities in the dissimilar condition. After a brief delay, a test face appeared at one of the encoding locations for participants to make a same/different judgment. Two experiments showed that similarity enhanced memory accuracy without changing the response criterion. These findings support previous computational models that incorporate featural variance as a component of working memory load. They delineate limitations of models that emphasize cortical resources or response decisions.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 476-482 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Psychonomic Bulletin and Review |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 1 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015, Psychonomic Society, Inc.
Keywords
- Change detection
- Face memory
- Similarity
- Visual working memory