Shifting reliance between the internal and external world: A meta-analysis on visual-working memory use.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Visual working memory (VWM) enables temporary information storage but is effortful and fragile.
• Individuals often prefer accessing external information over VWM storage, especially when costs are low.

Purpose of the Study:

• To meta-analyze the reliability and consistency of the trade-off between VWM storage and external sampling across different experimental manipulations and outcome measures.
• To establish standards and comparability in VWM research.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a meta-analysis of data from 28 experiments investigating the VWM storage-sampling trade-off.
• Analyzed the impact of cost manipulations on shifts between VWM and external sampling.

Main Results:

• All cost manipulations significantly increased reliance on VWM storage over external sampling.
• The effects of cost manipulations were consistent across studies, contrary to within-study reports.
• Different dependent variables showed clear, distinct effects, suggesting they measure different behavioral aspects.

Conclusions:

• Reliance on VWM versus external information shifts consistently with increased access costs, regardless of specific manipulations.
• This shift is reliably expressed across various outcome measures, indicating robust cognitive flexibility.
• New methods may offer deeper insights into the storage-sampling trade-off in VWM.