An adaptive perspective on visual working memory distortions.

ABSTRACT: When holding multiple items in visual working memory, representations of individual items are often attracted to, or repelled from, each other. While this is empirically well-established, existing frameworks do not account for both types of distortions, which appear to be in opposition. Here, we demonstrate that both types of memory distortion may confer functional benefits under different circumstances. When there are many items to remember and subjects are near their capacity to accurately remember each item individually, memories for each item become more similar (attraction). However, when remembering smaller sets of highly similar but discernible items, memory for each item becomes more distinct (repulsion), possibly to support better discrimination. Importantly, this repulsion grows

SUBMITTER: Chunharas C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9392817 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature