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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 23, 2026

Development of a Gaze-Contingent Display Framework Designed for Perceptual and Oculomotor Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Development of a Gaze-Contingent Display Framework Designed for Perceptual and Oculomotor Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Published on: April 11, 2025

Canonical and retinal size in visual working memory.

William L Gronewald¹, Vanessa G Lee², Roger W Remington²

¹Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, S504 Elliott Hall, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA. wgronewald15@gmail.com.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

|April 21, 2026

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Visual working memory (VWM) performance is influenced by object size, with larger retinal images and smaller real-world objects being remembered better. These size effects are more pronounced when memory displays contain a mix of object sizes.

Keywords:

Attention Canonical size Change detection Visual working memory

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Visual Perception

Background:

Visual working memory (VWM) is crucial for daily tasks, but its ability to ignore irrelevant sensory details like object size is debated.
Understanding how VWM encodes visual information, including non-essential properties, is key to cognitive science.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the impact of object size on visual working memory.
To differentiate the effects of retinal size (image on screen) and canonical size (real-world object size) on VWM.

Main Methods:

Three experiments were conducted using real-world objects and colored squares presented on a screen.
Participants' VWM was tested for objects varying in retinal size and canonical size.
Memory performance was compared across displays with uniform and mixed object sizes.

Main Results:

VWM performance was superior for larger retinal images and canonically smaller objects.
These size effects were amplified when participants recalled a mixture of differently sized objects compared to uniform displays.
In a mixed-size display of colored squares, larger squares were recalled better than smaller ones.

Conclusions:

Seemingly irrelevant sensory properties, such as object size, significantly impact VWM.
The findings suggest VWM favors objects that elicit stronger neural responses, with larger retinal sizes potentially receiving more attention in mixed displays.