Research
Currently, the focus of my research is visual processing. I study
how the visual system extracts, filters, and stores the information
constantly impinging on our eyes. Previously, I have worked on
studies of the executive control mechanisms that supervise
performance of multiple tasks simultaneously, and the processes that
detect and respond to errors in rapid decision making.
Below are brief summaries of projects on which I have worked, along
with links to further information on those projects.
Visual Working Memory
In this project, my collaborators and I study short-term retention
of visual information. In the long-run, we want to know how the
visual system encodes information into memory, what format is stored
there, how the information is retained, and how it is retrieved when
needed.
Towards this end, we have developed a theory of visual working
memory (WM) that allows us to derive precise, quantitative
predictions about performance in a variety of experimenal tasks. So
far, we have applied it to a visual change-detection task, and the
actual data is remarkably consistent with our predictions.
The theory allows us to estimate the capacity of visual WM for
various types of information. We have found that people are able to
retain about three object files, each containing both featural and
location information for one object bound together. Our results
generally provide strong evidence for object-based storage in visual
WM.
Further information:
- My dissertation
described the model and four experiments that tested its
predictions. I have converted the dissertation into a manuscript,
currently in the review/revision process: I can send you a recent
draft if you
email me.
-
I presented
a poster on
this topic at the 2002 meeting of the Psychonomics Society.
-
The DEMOS page has sample trials from a
change-detection task.
-
My collaborators on this project include current and former
members of David Meyer's
Brain, Cognition, and
Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan.
More to come...
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