Detection of the Number of Changes in a Display in Working Memory

作者：Cowan Nelson^*; Hardman Kyle; Saults J Scott; Blume Christopher L; Clark Katherine M; Sunday Mackenzie A

来源：Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition , 2016, 42(2): 169-185.

DOI：10.1037/xlm0000163

• change detection
• multiple change detection
• mathematical model
• working memory capacity
• metamemory

Here we examine a new task to assess working memory for visual arrays in which the participant must judge how many items changed from a studied array to a test array. As a clue to processing, on some trials in the first 2 experiments, participants carried out a metamemory judgment in which they were to decide how many items were in working memory. Trial-to-trial fluctuations in these working memory storage judgments correlated with performance fluctuations within an individual, indicating a need to include trial-to-trial variation within capacity models (through either capacity fluctuation or some other attention parameter). Mathematical modeling of the results achieved a good fit to a complex pattern of results, suggesting that working memory capacity limits can apply even to judgments that involve an entire array rather than just a single item that may have changed, thus providing the expected conscious access to at least some of the contents of working memory.

• 出版日期2016-2