2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Developing a Method to Measure Dynamic Visual Working Memory
| Project/Area Number |
22K13874
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
KONG Garry 早稲田大学, 高等研究所, 講師(任期付) (70906370)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2022-04-01 – 2025-03-31
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| Keywords | Visual Working Memory |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
This research aims to create a efficient yet reliable method to measure visual working memory and establish its validity. The first part of this project is complete, with the "Visual Working Memory Tracking" paradigm designed and tested. This method takes inspiration from continuous psychophysics and multiple object tracking, such that participants view a sequence of events and then reproduce this sequence on a touchscreen. By having the stimulus as a sequence of events, we are then able to collect hundreds of data points across a single trial. Importantly, we find that new task does not suffer from perceptual or attentional confounds.
As expected, the new method has a high degree of power, with the ability to measure the difference between set sizes 2 and 4 with 10 participants and less than 10 trials (less than 15 minutes of testing per participant). More importantly, the high degree of power also allows for the study of how visual working memory resources are distributed across the trial.
This research has been presented at the Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference 2023, and will also be presented at the Vision Sciences Society 2023. The manuscript is being finalised and will be submitted to an academic journal within the month.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The Visual Working Memory Tracking paradigm has been created and perfected enough for research usage. This side of the project has proceeded faster than expected.
Publication of the results is proceeding slower than expected due to delays at the academic journals.
The validation study is proceeding slower than expected due to effects of COVID-19 on in person testing in 2022. As these are now lifted, I expect the pace to increase during 2023.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
It has been suggested that I apply for a patent to cover the Visual Working Memory Tracking method. I plan to look into this possibility in 2023.
The validation study is the remaining goal for this study. The procedure for this has been created. All that remains is to test the 150-200 people necessary to complete the study.
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| Causes of Carryover |
In-person testing reduced in 2022 due to lingering COVID-19 restrictions.
Unexpected savings from overlap between different Kakenhi projects.
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Research Products
(2 results)
