Human short-term spatial memory: precision predicts capacity. Banta Lavenex, P., Boujon, V., Ndarugendamwo, A., & Lavenex, P. Cogn Psychol, 77:1–19, 2015. doi abstract bibtex Here, we aimed to determine the capacity of human short-term memory for allocentric spatial information in a real-world setting. Young adults were tested on their ability to learn, on a trial-unique basis, and remember over a 1-min interval the location(s) of 1, 3, 5, or 7 illuminating pads, among 23 pads distributed in a 4m x 4m arena surrounded by curtains on three sides. Participants had to walk to and touch the pads with their foot to illuminate the goal locations. In contrast to the predictions from classical slot models of working memory capacity limited to a fixed number of items, i.e., Miller's magical number 7 or Cowan's magical number 4, we found that the number of visited locations to find the goals was consistently about 1.6 times the number of goals, whereas the number of correct choices before erring and the number of errorless trials varied with memory load even when memory load was below the hypothetical memory capacity. In contrast to resource models of visual working memory, we found no evidence that memory resources were evenly distributed among unlimited numbers of items to be remembered. Instead, we found that memory for even one individual location was imprecise, and that memory performance for one location could be used to predict memory performance for multiple locations. Our findings are consistent with a theoretical model suggesting that the precision of the memory for individual locations might determine the capacity of human short-term memory for spatial information.
@Article{BantaLavenex2015,
author = {{Banta Lavenex}, Pamela and Boujon, Val\'erie and Ndarugendamwo, Ang\'elique and Lavenex, Pierre},
journal = {Cogn Psychol},
title = {Human short-term spatial memory: precision predicts capacity.},
year = {2015},
pages = {1--19},
volume = {77},
abstract = {Here, we aimed to determine the capacity of human short-term memory
for allocentric spatial information in a real-world setting. Young
adults were tested on their ability to learn, on a trial-unique basis,
and remember over a 1-min interval the location(s) of 1, 3, 5, or
7 illuminating pads, among 23 pads distributed in a 4m x 4m arena surrounded
by curtains on three sides. Participants had to walk to and touch
the pads with their foot to illuminate the goal locations. In contrast
to the predictions from classical slot models of working memory capacity
limited to a fixed number of items, i.e., Miller's magical number
7 or Cowan's magical number 4, we found that the number of visited
locations to find the goals was consistently about 1.6 times the
number of goals, whereas the number of correct choices before erring
and the number of errorless trials varied with memory load even when
memory load was below the hypothetical memory capacity. In contrast
to resource models of visual working memory, we found no evidence
that memory resources were evenly distributed among unlimited numbers
of items to be remembered. Instead, we found that memory for even
one individual location was imprecise, and that memory performance
for one location could be used to predict memory performance for
multiple locations. Our findings are consistent with a theoretical
model suggesting that the precision of the memory for individual
locations might determine the capacity of human short-term memory
for spatial information.},
doi = {10.1016/j.cogpsych.2015.02.001},
institution = {Fribourg Center for Cognition, University of Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.},
language = {eng},
medline-pst = {ppublish},
pmid = {25727897},
timestamp = {2015.05.11},
}
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Young adults were tested on their ability to learn, on a trial-unique basis, and remember over a 1-min interval the location(s) of 1, 3, 5, or 7 illuminating pads, among 23 pads distributed in a 4m x 4m arena surrounded by curtains on three sides. Participants had to walk to and touch the pads with their foot to illuminate the goal locations. In contrast to the predictions from classical slot models of working memory capacity limited to a fixed number of items, i.e., Miller's magical number 7 or Cowan's magical number 4, we found that the number of visited locations to find the goals was consistently about 1.6 times the number of goals, whereas the number of correct choices before erring and the number of errorless trials varied with memory load even when memory load was below the hypothetical memory capacity. In contrast to resource models of visual working memory, we found no evidence that memory resources were evenly distributed among unlimited numbers of items to be remembered. Instead, we found that memory for even one individual location was imprecise, and that memory performance for one location could be used to predict memory performance for multiple locations. 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Young\n\tadults were tested on their ability to learn, on a trial-unique basis,\n\tand remember over a 1-min interval the location(s) of 1, 3, 5, or\n\t7 illuminating pads, among 23 pads distributed in a 4m x 4m arena surrounded\n\tby curtains on three sides. Participants had to walk to and touch\n\tthe pads with their foot to illuminate the goal locations. In contrast\n\tto the predictions from classical slot models of working memory capacity\n\tlimited to a fixed number of items, i.e., Miller's magical number\n\t7 or Cowan's magical number 4, we found that the number of visited\n\tlocations to find the goals was consistently about 1.6 times the\n\tnumber of goals, whereas the number of correct choices before erring\n\tand the number of errorless trials varied with memory load even when\n\tmemory load was below the hypothetical memory capacity. 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