2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Memory deficit induced by overload
| Project/Area Number |
23700315
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Cognitive science
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo (2012-2013)
Osaka University (2011) |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2011 – 2013
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| Keywords | 記憶不全 / 視覚的短期記憶 / 視覚認知 / 物体認識 / 認知神経科学 / 個人差 |
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| Research Abstract |
We investigated visual working memory (VWM) deficit induced by overload, and found wide variability in VWM capacity across memory set sizes, age, and individuals. A marked decrease in the number of objects held in VWM was observed in both younger and older adults with low memory capacity, but not among high-capacity individuals, when set size went well beyond the limits of VWM capacity. In addition, this deficit was alleviated among low-capacity younger adults, but not among low-capacity older adults, by increasing VWM encoding time. Thus, low-capacity individuals are likely to show decreases in VWM capacity induced by overload, and aging exacerbates this deficit such that it cannot be recovered by simply increasing encoding time. Our findings challenge the prevailing assumption that VWM capacity is fixed and stable, encouraging a revision to the strict view that VWM capacity is constrained by a fixed number of distinct slots in which high-resolution object representations are stored.
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