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Science 8 August 2008:
Vol. 321. no. 5890, pp. 851 - 854
DOI: 10.1126/science.1158023
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Reports

Dynamic Shifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human Vision

Paul M. Bays1,2* and Masud Husain1,2

Our ability to remember what we have seen is very limited. Most current views characterize this limit as a fixed number of items—only four objects—that can be held in visual working memory. We show that visual memory capacity is not fixed by the number of objects, but rather is a limited resource that is shared out dynamically between all items in the visual scene. This resource can be shifted flexibly between objects, with allocation biased by selective attention and toward targets of upcoming eye movements. The proportion of resources allocated to each item determines the precision with which it is remembered, a relation that we show is governed by a simple power law, allowing quantitative estimates of resource distribution in a scene.

1 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, UK.
2 Institute of Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: p.bays{at}ion.ucl.ac.uk

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
TMS Over Human Frontal Eye Fields Disrupts Trans-saccadic Memory of Multiple Objects.
S. L. Prime, M. Vesia, and J. D. Crawford (2009)
Cereb Cortex
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Comment on "Dynamic Shifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human Vision".
N. Cowan and J. N. Rouder (2009)
Science 323, 877c
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Response to Comment on "Dynamic Shifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human Vision".
P. M. Bays and M. Husain (2009)
Science 323, 877d
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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