Binding objects to locations: the relationship between object files and visual working memory

J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2010 Jun;36(3):543-64. doi: 10.1037/a0017836.

Abstract

The relationship between object files and visual working memory (VWM) was investigated in a new paradigm combining features of traditional VWM experiments (color change detection) and object-file experiments (memory for the properties of moving objects). Object-file theory was found to account for a key component of object-position binding in VWM: With motion, color memory came to be associated with the new locations of objects. However, robust binding to the original locations was found despite clear evidence that the objects had moved. This latter binding appears to constitute a scene-based component in VWM, which codes object location relative to the abstract spatial configuration of the display and is largely insensitive to the dynamic properties of objects.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Association Learning*
  • Attention
  • Color Perception
  • Discrimination Learning
  • Distance Perception
  • Humans
  • Memory, Short-Term*
  • Motion Perception
  • Orientation*
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual*
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Psychophysics
  • Reaction Time
  • Serial Learning