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Variability in visual working memory ability limits the efficiency of perceptual decision making.
Edward F Ester1, Tiffany C Ho, Scott D Brown
1Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Journal of Vision
|April 4, 2014
Summary
Individual differences in working memory (WM) capacity directly impact how quickly people accumulate sensory evidence for making decisions. This suggests a direct link between WM storage and decision-making speed.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Decision Science
- Visual Cognition
Background:
- Accurate decision-making relies on processing limited sensory input.
- Sensory evidence accumulation over time underlies perceptual decisions.
- The role of memory systems in this process remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between working memory (WM) capacity and the speed of evidence accumulation in decision-making.
- To determine if WM mediates the integration of sensory information over time.
- To explore the functional link between WM storage and perceptual decision processes.
Main Methods:
- Correlational analysis of WM capacity and evidence accumulation rates in speeded tasks.
- Utilized speeded two-alternative forced choice (2-AFC) tasks.
- Introduced concurrent task paradigms to assess the impact of memory load on decision-making.
Main Results:
- Significant positive correlation found between individual working memory capacity and the speed of evidence accumulation.
- This correlation was consistent across various decision-making tasks.
- Performing a discrimination task concurrently with a WM task impaired performance on both, indicating a direct link.
Conclusions:
- Working memory capacity is a key factor influencing the speed of perceptual decision-making.
- WM directly supports the integration of sensory evidence over time.
- Decision-making and WM storage share common neural resources.
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