Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Storage of features, conjunctions and objects in visual working memory.

E K Vogel1, G F Woodman, S J Luck

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, USA. vogel@sdepl.ucsd.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance
|March 16, 2001
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Atypical attentional filtering of visual information in youth with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome as indexed by event-related potentials.

NeuroImage. Clinical·2021
Same author

The reliability and stability of visual working memory capacity.

Behavior research methods·2017
Same author

Are attentional dwell times inconsistent with serial visual search?

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2013
Same author

Attention-related modulation of sensory-evoked brain activity in a visual search task.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2013
Same author

Monitoring the visual world: hemispheric asymmetries and subcortical processes in attention.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2013
Same author

Are the same attentional mechanisms used to detect visual search targets defined by color, orientation, and motion?

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2013
Same journal

Human thermal sensitivity drifts at extreme temperatures.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026
Same journal

Dynamic competition between selective attention and spatial prediction during visual search.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026
Same journal

Encapsulation of the visual perception of social events from semantic priming.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026
Same journal

Biasmapping: Idiosyncratic covert search in the vicinity of fixation.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026
Same journal

What are you still waiting for? Fricative recognition shows encapsulated processing and is partially predicted by secondary cue reliance.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026
Same journal

Eye movements reveal that drivers can predict the location of hazards in dynamic road scenes but gaze and awareness are dissociable.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026
See all related articles

Visual working memory capacity is limited to 3-4 items, storing integrated objects rather than individual features. This finding clarifies how visual working memory handles complex information.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Visual Perception

Background:

  • Working memory comprises distinct verbal and visual subsystems.
  • The storage limits of visual working memory remain incompletely understood, particularly for simple features versus combined attributes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the storage capacity of visual working memory for simple features and feature conjunctions.
  • To investigate whether visual working memory stores individual features or integrated objects.

Main Methods:

  • Participants were tested on their ability to retain information about colors and orientations.
  • Capacity was assessed for single features and for objects defined by conjunctions of features.

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Visual working memory can retain information on approximately 3-4 colors or orientations simultaneously.
  • Observers could retain both color and orientation for 3-4 objects, indicating storage of integrated objects.
  • Objects with multiple features were retained as effectively as single-feature objects.

Conclusions:

  • Visual working memory capacity is best understood in terms of integrated objects, not isolated features.
  • The storage of multiple features within a single object allows for greater information retention in visual working memory.