University of Twente Student Theses
Precision of Visual Working Memory: How Colours and Sizes Decay over Time
Renner, Vladislav (2022) Precision of Visual Working Memory: How Colours and Sizes Decay over Time.
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| Abstract: | Visual Working Memory (VWM), the cognitive function that allows us to temporarily store, maintain and retrieve visual information has been under investigation for a long time. The two most common theories that try to explain how VWM works are the discrete capacity model and the limited resource model. The former explains VWM in terms of “slots” to be filled with visual information that can be retained effectively as long as the visual items do not exceed a certain “slot-limit”, whereas the latter explains VWM in terms of a pool of resources to be allocated to visual information that can be retained more effectively if they are less complicated. The present study aims to investigate whether attention, time delays and amount of visual information influence the retention of visual information. Fourteen participants from Germany had to memorize different visual features of up to four visual items for time delays that varied between one and nine seconds. Moreover, the experiment was divided into three different blocks. In the first block, the participants were asked to memorize the colour of the visual items, in the second the size, and in the third both colour and size. The data analysis showed that focusing on one feature instead of two, as well as the number of presented visual items, both had a significant effect on recall accuracy, which supports the limited resource model and gives more insight into how VWM decay functions. Decay time itself had no significant effect on recall accuracy, supporting the idea that other mental processes that occur during a given timeframe are the reason for decreased recall precision. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology BSc (56604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/92094 |
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