Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Could you find 1 of your 1,000 Facebook friends in a crowd of 100? Even at a rate of 25 ms per comparison, determining that no friends were in the crowd would take more than 40 min if memory and visual search interacted linearly. In the experiment reported here, observers memorized pictures of 1 to 100 targets and then searched for any of these targets in visual displays of 1 to 16 objects. Response times varied linearly with visual set size but logarithmically with memory set size. Data from memory set sizes of 1 through 16 accurately predicted response times for different observers holding 100 objects in memory. The results would be consistent with a binary coding of visual objects in memory and are relevant to applied searches in which experts look for any of many items of interest (e.g., a radiologist running through a mental checklist of what might be wrong in a car-crash victim or an airport screener looking for any of a list of prohibited items in a carry-on bag).

Keywords

attention memory visual memory visual attention visual search

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Balani

A. B.

Soto

Humphreys

G. W.

(2010). Working memory and target-related distractor effects on visual search. Memory & Cognition, 38, 1058–1076.

Brady

T. F.

Konkle

Alvarez

G. A.

Oliva

(2008). Visual long-term memory has a massive storage capacity for object details. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 105, 14325–14329.

Brainard

D. H.

(1997). The Psychophysics Toolbox. Spatial Vision, 10, 433–436.

Briggs

G. E.

Blaha

(1969). Memory retrieval and central comparison times in information processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 79(3, Pt. 1), 395–402.

Burrows

Murdock

B. B.

Jr (1969). Effects of extended practice on high-speed scanning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 82(2), 231–237. doi:10.1037/h002814510.1037/h0028145

Burrows

Okada

(1975). Memory retrieval from long and short lists. Science, 188, 1031–1033.

Downing

Dodds

(2004). Competition in visual working memory for control of search. Visual Cognition, 11, 689–703.

Han

S.-H.

Kim

M.-S.

(2004). Visual search does not remain efficient when executive working memory is working. Psychological Science, 15, 623–628.

Hick

W. E.

(1952). On the rate of gain of information. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 4, 11–26.

10.

Houtkamp

Roelfsema

P. R.

(2009). Matching of visual input to only one item at any one time. Psychological Research, 73, 317–326. doi:10.1007/s00426-008-0157-310.1007/s00426-008-0157-3

11.

Huffman

D. A.

(1952). A method for the construction of minimum-redundancy codes. Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, 40, 1098–1102.

12.

Hyman

(1953). Stimulus information as a determinant of reaction time. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 45(3), 188–196.

13.

Konkle

Brady

Alvarez

Oliva

(2008). Remembering thousands of objects with high fidelity. Journal of Vision, 8(6), Article 694. Retrieved from http://journalofvision.org/8/6/694/

14.

Neisser

(1974). Practiced card sorting for multiple targets. Memory & Cognition, 2, 781–785.

15.

Nickerson

R. S.

(1966). Response times with a memory-dependent decision task. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72(5), 761–769. doi:10.1037/h002378810.1037/h0023788

16.

Olivers

C. N.

Peters

Houtkamp

Roelfsema

P. R.

(2011). Different states in visual working memory: When it guides attention and when it does not. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15, 327–334. doi:S1364-6613(11)00085-4 [pii] 10.1016/j.tics.2011.05.00410.1016/j.tics.2011.05.004

17.

Rosch

E. H.

(1973). Natural categories. Cognitive Psychology, 4, 328–350.

18.

Schneider

Shiffrin

R. M.

(1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: I. Detection, search, and attention. Psychological Review, 84, 1–66.

19.

Shiffrin

R. M.

(1988). Attention. In Atkinson

Herrnstein

R. J.

Lindzey

Luce

R. D.

(Eds.), Stevens’ handbook of experimental psychology (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 739–812). New York, NY: John Wiley.

20.

Sternberg

(1966). High-speed scanning in human memory. Science, 153, 652–654.

21.

Van Zandt

Townsend

J. T.

(1993). Self-terminating versus exhaustive processes in rapid visual and memory search: An evaluative review. Perception & Psychophysics, 53, 563–580.

22.

Vickery

T. J.

King

L.-W.

Jiang

(2005). Setting up the target template in visual search. Journal of Vision, 5(1), Article 8. Retrieved from http://www.journalofvision.org/content/5/1/8

23.

Wolfe

J. M.

(1994). Guided Search 2.0: A revised model of visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1, 202–238.

24.

Wolfe

J. M.

(1998). What do 1,000,000 trials tell us about visual search? Psychological Science, 9, 33–39.

25.

Wolfe

J. M.

(2010). Visual search. Current Biology, 20, R346–R349. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.02.01610.1016/j.cub.2010.02.016

26.

Woodman

G. F.

Vogel

E. K.

Luck

S. J.

(2001). Visual search remains efficient when visual working memory is full. Psychological Science, 12, 219–224.

Saved by a Log

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References