Abstracts of the Psychonomic Society — Volume 14 — November ...

Friday Afternoon Papers 89–95
better remembered faces in which the eyes were gazing directly at them,
compared with faces in which the eyes were averted. High-functioning
children and adolescents with an ASD, and age- and IQ-matched typically
developing controls were shown a series of faces. The gaze of the
eyes of the study faces was either direct or averted. We tested memory
for these faces shown with their eyes closed in a recognition task. The
typically developing group better remembered the direct-gaze faces,
whereas the ASD participants showed the opposite effect. These results
imply that there may be an important link between gaze aversion in ASD
and face recognition abilities.
Working memory
Back Bay Ballroom C, Friday Afternoon, 1:30–3:25
Chaired by Klaus Oberauer, University of Zurich
1:30–1:45 (89)
No Evidence for Decay in Verbal Working memory. KLAUS OBER-
AUER, University of Zurich, & STEPHAN LEWANDOWSKY, University
of Western Australia—Why is working memory capacity limited?
One idea is that representations in working memory quickly decay over
time unless rehearsed. Support for this assumption comes from Portrat,
Barrouillet, and Camos (2008, JEP:LMC), who varied the difficulty
(and thereby duration) of a choice task inserted in between memoranda
in a complex-span paradigm, holding the time for rehearsal between
choice-task trials constant. They found better memory with easier choice
tasks. We show through reanalysis of their data that the effect was not due
to the duration of people’s choices but to their errors, which engendered
posterror processing, thus reducing rehearsal time. We present two experiments
using the same design as Portrat et al., but with a choice task
that generates no posterror slowing. The manipulation of choice-task
difficulty, despite having a substantial effect on processing duration, had
no effect on memory. The results provide evidence against time-based
decay in working memory.
1:50–2:05 (90)
After 50 years, the Fate of Attention and Working memory Theories.
NELSON COWAN, University of Missouri, Columbia—Around the
start of the Psychonomic Society, George Miller, Donald Broadbent,
and George Sperling profoundly inspired experimental psychologists.
Where do their ideas stand now? I will review basic conclusions of
their works in light of subsequent research. Miller (1956) wrote of the
“magical number seven” in immediate memory and Miller, Galanter,
and Pribram (1960) described a working memory faculty that maintains
the goals of cognitive tasks. Broadbent (1958) proposed a simple model
of information processing including automatic short-lived storage and
limited-capacity attention, and Sperling (1960) provided stronger evidence
of pre- and postattentional memory. I argue that these researchers
established principles that were fundamentally correct, but that they
missed several boundary conditions that must be met to observe three
phenomena: (1) a fixed number of chunks in working memory, (2) loss
of memory as a function of time, and (3) filtering out of irrelevant stimuli
at an early stage of processing.
2:10–2:25 (91)
Strategic Elimination of objects From Visual Working memory.
ASHLEIGH M. RICHARD & ANDREW HOLLINGWORTH, University
of Iowa (read by Andrew Hollingworth)—The completion of
many real-world visual tasks requires control over the content of visual
working memory (VWM). Previously, we reported that participants can
strategically prioritize a task-relevant object in VWM, protecting it from
interference caused by fixations on other objects. Here, we examined a
second form of control: the elimination of no-longer-relevant items from
VWM. Participants were cued to prioritize one object within a set of
objects presented serially in a natural scene. On some trials, a second cue
indicated that the cued object should be deprioritized, because it would
now be the object least likely to be tested. Memory for the deprioritized
object was reduced to levels near floor, despite its active maintenance
in VWM for multiple seconds between the first and second cue. These
results demonstrate close top-down management of the content of VWM
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and the ability to strategically eliminate information that is no longer
task relevant.
2:30–2:45 (92)
To Bind or Not To Bind in Visual Short-Term memory: it Depends
on the Question. SHRIRADHA SENGUPTA & PAUL VERHAE-
GHEN, Georgia Institute of Technology (read by Paul Verhaeghen)—
We examined time–accuracy functions for encoding into visual shortterm
memory (VSTM). Participants saw a memory set of three objects
built from two features (shape and color) and indicated whether either
the color or the shape of a probe object, or the whole object itself, had
been present in the memory set. In a disjunctive condition, in which the
negative targets were built from features absent in the memory set, all
three time–accuracy functions were identical, showing no binding costs.
Large binding costs were observed in a conjunctive condition, in which
the negative targets consisted of recombined features from the display.
VSTM might then be flexible in how it stores elements—as features or as
objects. This position is strengthened by the results of a third (conjunction)
experiment: The cumulative distribution for whole-object retrieval
times fit the expectation for an independent race of features. (Data collection
for the corresponding disjunction experiment is under way.)
2:50–3:05 (93)
update on the ToDAm Working memory model. BENNET B. MUR-
DOCK, University of Toronto—The TODAM working memory model is
a simulation version of the Lewandowsky and Murdock (1989) chaining
model for serial-order effects in short-term memory. It deals with recall,
probe tests, item recognition, and serial learning and has been applied to
a variety of empirical effects. It uses the standard TODAM system architecture
and a four-item working memory buffer in which the storage and
retrieval operations (convolution and correlation) are carried out. After a
brief review of the model, I will present some recent results.
3:10–3:25 (94)
Quantity Not Quality: The Relationship Between Working memory
Capacity and Fluid intelligence. EDWARD AWH, KEISUKE
FUKUDA, EDWARD VOGEL, & ULRICH MAYR, University of
Oregon—A central motivation for understanding capacity in working
memory (WM) is its robust covariance with fluid intelligence (g). Motivated
by recent evidence that the number and resolution of representations
in WM represent distinct aspects of memory ability, we sought
to determine which of these factors mediate the link with g (measured
using Raven’s and Culture Fair). We carried out an exploratory factor
analysis that included multiple measures of number and resolution in
visual WM (n = 79). Consistent with the two-factor model, two orthogonal
factors (with no significant cross-loadings) emerged to account for
individual differences in number and resolution. Moreover, although the
number of items stored showed a robust correlation with g (r = .66), no
reliable relationship was observed between mnemonic resolution and
g (r = 2.05). Thus, although both number and resolution are crucial
aspects of WM capacity, only number mediates the link with standard
measures of fluid intelligence.
models of Decision making
Back Bay Ballroom D, Friday Afternoon, 1:30–3:25
Chaired by Douglas H. Wedell, University of South Carolina
1:30–1:45 (95)
modeling Contextual Dependence of Choice in individuals. DOUG-
LAS H. WEDELL, University of South Carolina, & SYLVIA FITTING,
Virginia Commonwealth University—Participants made 150 trinary
choices in simulated grocery shopping, with each product described by
price and quality rating. Each set included a decoy alternative designed
to alter the preference relationship between the other two alternatives in
the set. Each participant’s choices were fit by a series of models using a
common response function and weighted additive integration of dimensional
values along with contextual valuation parameters that captured
(1) rank valuing, (2) dominance valuing, (3) tied dominance valuing,
(4) loss valuing, and (5) compromise valuing. These value processes