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Published on: December 11, 2017
Task-dependent representation of moving objects within working memory in obstacle avoidance
Gregor Hardiess1, Hanspeter A Mallot
1Faculty of Biology, Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Tuebingen, Germany. gregor.hardiess@uni-tuebingen.de
Purpose:
The purpose of the study was the quantitative analysis of the working memory representation of dynamic objects related to gaze movement behavior.
Methods:
Eighteen subjects participated in a virtual street-crossing paradigm. The primary task was collisions avoidance. To investigate the representation format, during a sub-task subjects were asked to reconstruct the traffic scene from memory.
Results:
The distribution of cars positioned during the sub-task reveals a task-dependent (i.e., collision-relevant) representation of about four cars. In contrast, analysis of gaze behavior did not show a preference for collision-prone cars.
Conclusion:
Subjects avoided collisions efficiently by applying a gaze strategy adequate to create a representation that fulfills the demands of the task. Collision-prone cars are more likely to be represented in memory, but not more likely to be fixated.
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