Visual short term memory - Scholarpedia
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Visual short term memory
From Scholarpedia
Steven J. Luck (2007), Scholarpedia, 2(6):3328.
revision #38772 [link to/cite this article]
Curator: Dr. Steven J. Luck, Center for Mind & Brain and Department of Psychology, University of California,
Davis, CA
Visual short term memory (VSTM) is a memory system that stores visual information for a few seconds so that it
can be used in the service of ongoing cognitive tasks. Compared with iconic memory representations, VSTM
representations are longer lasting, more abstract, and more durable. VSTM representations can survive eye
movements, eye blinks, and other visual interruptions, and they may play an important role in maintaining continuity
across these interruptions. VSTM also differs markedly from long-term memory (LTM). Specifically, whereas LTM
has a virtually infinite storage capacity and creates richly detailed representations over a relatively long time period,
VSTM has a highly limited storage capacity and creates largely schematic representations very rapidly. VSTM is
usually considered to be the visual storage component of the broader working memory system.
Contents
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Measuring visual short term memory
Neural substrates of visual short term memory
Subdividing visual short term memory
Capacity limits in visual short term memory
Creation, maintenance, and use of visual short-term memory representations
The function of visual short-term memory representations
References
External links
See also
Measuring visual short term memory
Four general classes of tasks have most often
been used to study VSTM. In one class of
tasks, subjects are are asked to create a mental
image. In the Brook Matrix Task (Brooks,
1967), for example, subjects are told a set of
numbers and their relative spatial locations
within a matrix (e.g., “place a 4 in the upper
left corner; the place a 3 below this position”).
It is assumed that the mental image is stored in
VSTM. These tasks are usually studied in the
context of dual-task interference experiments,
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Figure 1: Example of the one-shot change-detection task.
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in which
the goal
is to
determine
whether
the
VSTM
task can
be
Figure 3: Typical results from a one-shot change
detection task (from Vogel et al., 2001).
performed concurrently with another task.
Figure 2: Animated example of a one-shot color change
detection task with varying set sizes.
A second class of VSTM tasks uses a recall procedure. For
example, the subject may be presented with a colored square for 500 ms and then, after a 1000-ms delay, be asked to
point to the remembered color of this item on a color wheel (see, e.g., Wilken & Ma, 2004).
A third class of VSTM tasks uses a sequential comparison procedure. For example, the subject may be presented with
a colored square for 500 ms and then, after a 1000-ms delay, be shown another colored square and asked whether it
is the same color as the remembered color. This procedure is akin to the partial report technique that typically is used
to study iconic memory, but the long delay between the display phase and the recognition phase exceeds the limits of
iconic memory, meaning the task depends on longer-lasting VSTM.
A common version of the sequential comparison procedure is the change-detection task. In the one-shot version of
the change-detection task (first developed by Phillips, 1974), observers view a brief sample array, which consists of
one or more objects that the observers try to remember (see Figure 1). After a brief retention interval, a test array is
presented, and the observers compare the test array with the sample array to determine if there are any differences.
The number of objects in the array (the set size) is often varied, and detection accuracy typically declines as the
number of objects increases. An animated demonstration of this task is shown in Figure 2, and typical results are
shown in Figure 3.
A fourth class of VSTM tasks, used most often in monkeys, requires the observer to withhold a response after seeing
a target. For example, while the observer is looking at a central fixation point, a small target will flash at some
peripheral location; the observer must continue looking at the fixation point until it disappears, at which time, the
remembered location of the target is fixated (see, e.g., Funahashi, Bruce, & Goldman-Rakic, 1993).
The last three classes of VSTM tasks are highly similar insofar as they involve the brief presentation of a set of
stimuli followed by a short delay period and then some kind of simple memory test. It is not clear whether the first
class of VSTM tasks—which involves mental imagery—taps the same memory system as the last three classes of
VSTM tasks.
Neural substrates of visual short term memory
Whereas long term memory representations are stored by
means of long lasting changes in synaptic connections, VSTM
representations are stored by means of sustained firing of action
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potentials. This can be observed directly in monkeys by
recording the activity of individual neurons in VSTM tasks.
When a monkey has been shown a to-be-remembered stimulus,
neurons in specific areas will begin to fire and will continue to
fire during the delay interval. In many cases, neurons in highlevel areas of visual cortex that produce a large sensory
response to the initial presentation of the stimulus are the same
neurons that will exhibit sustained activity during the delay
period. An example of this is shown in Figure 4. Neural
activity during the delay period of a VSTM task can also be
observed in neuroimaging studies (Cohen et al., 1997) and
event-related potential studies (Vogel & Machizawa, 2004).
Activity in the intraparietal sulcus is closely tied with VSTM
performance (Todd & Marois, 2004; Xu & Chun, 2006).
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Figure 4: Example of single-unit delay-period activity
following two classes of stimuli. Each stimulus is
presented for 100 ms, but the subject must remember
the stimulus until the end of the trial. In this example,
stimulus A elicits a much larger sensory response than
stimulus B, and the activity is maintained long after the
stimulus disappears.
It is thought that delay activity involves recurrent neural
networks. That is, the neurons that respond to a stimulus are
part of a circuit in which the activity in these sensory neurons ultimately flows back to them, allowing them to
continue firing when the stimulus has been removed (Raffone & Wolters, 2001).
Subdividing visual short term memory
VSTM can be readily distinguished from verbal short term memory. Brain damage can lead to a disruption of verbal
short term memory without a disruption of VSTM and vice versa (De Renzi & Nichelli, 1975). In addition, it is
possible to fill up verbal short term memory with one task without impacting VSTM for another task and vice versa
(Scarborough, 1972; Vogel, Woodman, & Luck, 2001).
VSTM can also be subdivided into spatial and object subsystems, although there is some controversy about this issue.
Support for separate spatial and object subsystems comes from several sources:
Dual-task studies have shown that spatial VSTM but not object VSTM is impaired by the performance of
certain concurrent tasks, whereas object but not spatial VSTM is impaired by other concurrent tasks (Hyun &
Luck, in press; Logie & Marchetti, 1991; Tresch, Sinnamon, & Seamon, 1993; Woodman & Luck, 2004;
Woodman, Vogel, & Luck, 2001).
Brain damage may disrupt object memory without disrupting spatial memory, or vice versa (De Renzi &
Nichelli, 1975; Farah, Hammond, Levine, & Calvanio, 1988; Hanley, Young, & Person, 1991).
Sustained delay-period activity is observed in the parietal lobe for spatial VSTM tasks but in the occipital and
temporal lobes for object VSTM tasks (Cohen et al., 1997; S.M. Courtney, Ungerleider, Keil, & Haxby, 1996;
Courtney, Ungerleider, Keil, & Haxby, 1997; Fuster & Jervey, 1981; Gnadt & Andersen, 1988; Miller, Li, &
Desimone, 1993; Smith & Jonides, 1997).
However, there is also evidence that spatial and object information is integrated in VSTM:
Prefrontal cortex is active during both spatial and object VSTM tasks (Postle & D'Esposito, 1999; Rainer,
Asaad, & Miller, 1998).
Disruptions in the spatial organization of objects can influence object VSTM (Jiang, Olson, & Chun, 2000).
A possible resolution to these conflicting findings is that spatial and object information are stored in separate
posterior brain systems but are functionally linked by their mutual connections with prefrontal control systems.
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Capacity limits in visual short term memory
Early studies of VSTM using alphanumeric characters
suggested a capacity limit of 4-5 items (e.g., Sperling, 1960),
but it was not clear whether the items were being stored
visually or verbally. Experiments using the change-detection
task have estimated a capacity of 3-4 objects using basic visual
features combined with an interference task to limit
contributions from verbal short term memory (Luck & Vogel,
1997). As shown in Figure 3, for example, observers are highly
accurate for arrays containing 1-3 simple objects, and
performance declines systematically as the number of items
increases. Quantitative estimates of capacity using the
Pashler/Cowan K equation (Cowan et al., 2005; Pashler, 1988)
typically lead to estimates of 3-4 items, which might reflect a
broad limit on active memory maintenance (Cowan, 2001).
However, it is not yet clear whether VSTM is limited to a set
of 3-4 high-resolution representations or "slots" or whether the
limits are due to the amount of information rather than the
number of objects. The first view proposes that VSTM consists
of a small number of fixed-resolution slots, and Luck and
Vogel (1997) proposed that the capacity of VSTM is limited by
Figure 5: Stimuli and results from the study of Luck and
the number of objects rather than the number features that must
Vogel (1997). In one condition, observers were
be remembered. That is, objects are the fundamental storage
instructed to remember only the colors of the items
because only color could change. In a second condition,
unit for VSTM. As shown in Figure 5, they demonstrated that
observers were instructed to remember only the
observers could remember the colors and orientations of four
orientations
of the items because only orientation could
objects just as well as they could remember only the colors or
change. In a third condition, observers were instructed
only the orientations. They further showed that objects defined
to remember both the colors and the orientations
by four features could be remembered as well as objects
because either could change.
defined by a single feature. An alternative possibility is that
each feature dimension is represented in a separate memory
store (Magnussen, Greenlee, & Thomas, 1996). Subsequent research has shown that features can be stored more
efficiently when they form an object than when they do not (Xu 2002a, 2002b) and that observers can detect
differences between arrays that contain the same features but in different combinations (Johnson, Hollingworth, &
Luck, in press; Wheeler & Treisman, 2002). Yet, such research also shows that performance is worse when multiple
features are drawn from the same feature dimension (e.g, objects are composed of two colors that could change
independently rather than one color and one orientation).
The second view proposes that capacity limits on VSTM result not from the number of objects or a fixed number of
slots, but from the amount of information in the display. This view, often called the “resource” hypothesis, proposes
that a fixed pool of resources is divided among the available items, with the resolution of the representation reduced
as the number of items is increased. In this view, all of the objects may be stored, but with decreased resolution as
the amount of information increases (Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2004; Vogel et al., 2001; Wilken & Ma, 2004). Alvarez
and Cavanagh (2004) found that estimated capacity decreased as a function of the difficulty of discriminating
different items increased. By extrapolating to a case in which the items were maximally discriminable with minimal
effort, they also estimated a maximum capacity of approximately 4.5 items for the simplest items.
The difference between these views rests on whether the fundamental units of visual memory are discrete objects that
are stored in fixed-resolution slots or whether the determining factor in the capacity of VSTM is the amount of
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information to be stored, independent of the number of objects.
Creation, maintenance, and use of visual short-term memory
representations
Perceptual representations are fragile and are easily overwritten by new stimuli (the phenomenon of visual masking).
VSTM representations, in contrast, must survive incoming stimuli. The process of transforming transient perceptual
representations into durable VSTM representations is called consolidation (by analogy to the memory consolidation
process used to stabilize long-term memory representations) or vulcanization (by analogy to the vulcanization process
used to make rubber durable). Initial research on this process indicates that it involves a limited-capacity central
process (Jolicoeur & Dell' Acqua, 1998; Vogel, Woodman, & Luck, 2006) and that it requires 20-50 ms to
consolidate each item (Gegenfurtner & Sperling, 1993; Shibuya & Bundesen, 1988; Vogel, Woodman, & Luck, in
press). However, it is not yet known whether the consolidation process occurs simultaneously for all items in memory
(i.e., in parallel) or sequentially for each item (i.e., serially).
The consolidation process appears to play an important role in the attentional blink phenomenon. Specifically, the
attentional blink appears to occur when the second of two targets has been perceived but is not consolidated in
VSTM.
VSTM representations may decay, terminate, or drift over time. For example, spatial VSTM representations may be
attracted toward or repelled away from spatial reference points (Simmering, Spencer, & Schöner, in press; Spencer &
Hund, 2002).
The process of maintaining representations in VSTM is not very effortful, and it is possible to perform highly
attention-demanding tasks during the delay period of a VSTM with little or no interference as long as these tasks do
not require the use of VSTM. For example, people can perform a difficult visual search while they are concurrently
maintaining several colors or shapes in VSTM (Woodman et al., 2001). However, a visual search task interferes with
a spatial VSTM task (Woodman & Luck, 2004), presumably because visual search requires spatial memory to avoid
revisiting already-searched locations (Peterson, Kramer, Wang, Irwin, & McCarley, 2001).
If a VSTM representation survives the delay period, it can be used in further cognitive processing. This often involves
comparing the VSTM representations with new sensory inputs, as in the change-detection paradigm. Although this
comparison process has not yet received much study in the context of VSTM, visual comparison processes were
extensively studied in the context of visual perception from the 1960s through the early 1980s (Farell, 1985). The
comparison of two simultaneous perceptual inputs appears to be largely identical to the comparison of a perceptual
input with a VSTM representation (Hyun, 2006; Scott-Brown, Baker, & Orbach, 2000), so the results of this older
literature are probably relevant for VSTM. These older studies indicated that comparison involves two parallel
processes, one that can rapidly determine that two patterns are the same and one that more slowly finds differences.
As a result, responses are typically faster when the patterns being compared are the same than when they are
different.
The function of visual short-term memory representations
VSTM is thought to be the visual component of the working memory system, and as such it is used as a buffer for
temporary information storage during the process of naturally occurring tasks. But what naturally occurring tasks
actually require VSTM? Most work on this issue has focused on the role of VSTM in bridging the sensory gaps
caused by saccadic eye movements. These sudden shift of gaze typically occur 2-4 times per second, and vision is
briefly suppressed while the eyes are moving. Thus, the visual input consists of a series of spatially shifted snapshots
of the overall scene, separated by brief gaps. Over time, a rich and detailed long-term memory representation is
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constructed from these brief glimpses of the input (Hollingworth, 2004), and VSTM is thought to bridge the gaps
between these glimpses (Irwin, 1991) and to allow the relevant portions of one glimpse to be aligned with the
relevant portions of the next glimpse (Currie, McConkie, Carlson-Radvansky, & Irwin, 2000; Henderson &
Hollingworth, 1999). Both spatial and object VSTM systems may play important roles in the integration of
information across eye movements.
Spatial VSTM might also play an important role in keeping track of locations that have already been attended when
subjects search for targets in complex scenes. Inhibition-of-return experiments have shown that after attention has
visited a location, it tends not to revisit the same location again immediately afterward (Klein, 2000; Peterson et al.,
2001; Posner & Cohen, 1984). It appears that the visual system can exhibit inhibition at several previously attended
locations over a period of a few seconds (Snyder & Kingstone, 2001), and the inhibition is reduced when spatial
VSTM is occupied by a concurrent task (Castel, Pratt, & Craik, 2003).
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Internal references
Valentino Braitenberg (2007) Brain. Scholarpedia, 2(11):2918.
Keith Rayner and Monica Castelhano (2007) Eye movements. Scholarpedia, 2(10):3649.
William D. Penny and Karl J. Friston (2007) Functional imaging. Scholarpedia, 2(5):1478.
Peter Jonas and Gyorgy Buzsaki (2007) Neural inhibition. Scholarpedia, 2(9):3286.
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External links
www.wikipedia.org - "Visual short term memory" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_short_term_memory)
Author's Web Site (http://mindbrain.ucdavis.edu/people/sjluck)
See also
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Memory, Vision, Visual search, Working memory
Steven J. Luck (2007) Visual short term memory. Scholarpedia, 2(6):3328, (go to the first approved version)
Created: 9 March 2007, reviewed: 27 June 2007, accepted: 27 June 2007
Invited by: Dr. Eugene M. Izhikevich, Editor-in-Chief of Scholarpedia, the free peer reviewed encyclopedia
Action editor: Dr. Eugene M. Izhikevich, Editor-in-Chief of Scholarpedia, the free peer reviewed encyclopedia
Reviewer A: Dr. Marvin Chun, Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT
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