An Ideal Observer Analysis of Visual Working Memory

• Published in: Psychological review Vol. 119; no. 4; pp. 807 - 830
• Main Authors: Sims, Chris R, Jacobs, Robert A, Knill, David C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Psychological Association 01.10.2012
• Subjects: Guidelines; Humans; Information Theory; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Models, Theoretical; Observation; Observer Variation; Photic Stimulation - methods; Prediction; Psychometrics; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Short Term Memory; Task Analysis; Visual Perception; Visual Perception - physiology; Visual Stimuli

Limits in visual working memory (VWM) strongly constrain human performance across many tasks. However, the nature of these limits is not well understood. In this article we develop an ideal observer analysis of human VWM by deriving the expected behavior of an optimally performing but limited-capaci...