Chunking as a rational strategy for lossy data compression in visual working memory.

ABSTRACT: The nature of capacity limits for visual working memory has been the subject of an intense debate that has relied on models that assume items are encoded independently. Here we propose that instead, similar features are jointly encoded through a "chunking" process to optimize performance on visual working memory tasks. We show that such chunking can: (a) facilitate performance improvements for abstract capacity-limited systems, (b) be optimized through reinforcement, (c) be implemented by center-surround dynamics, and (d) increase effective storage capacity at the expense of recall precision. Human performance on a variant of a canonical working memory task demonstrated performance advantages, precision detriments, interitem dependencies, and trial-to-trial behavioral adjustments diagnosti

SUBMITTER: Nassar MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6026019 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature