A psychological science: Visual long-term memory has the same limit on fidelity as visual working memory

         According to Brady et al. (2013), several studies have demonstrated “that visual long-term memory is capable of storing thousands of objects with considerable detail. However, the authors note that long-term memory fidelity has not been explored quantitatively. Moreover, it is difficult comparing across time scales and items the information observers must store to succeed in object discriminations. These observations formed the basis of the research questions. The investigation aimed at answering just how detailed visual long-term memory is. Additionally, it aimed to explore how that detail compared to the detail compared in the visual working -memory or the precision of perception.

            In determining the hypothesis, Brady and colleagues depended on memory for decision criteria instead of perceptual features of the objects. The researchers took “a psychophysical approach in attempts to quantify the fidelity of visual long-term memory for objects” and “used colour as a case study” (p. 4). Colour, they explain, was used because objects’ colours could be manipulated in a continuum. Therefore, the experiments set up were “a continuous color report on pictures of real-world objects” (Brady et al., 2013, p.6).

            Empirical results showed high accuracy fidelity in the perception condition, which fell significantly for both working memory and long-term memory conditions. This claim is confirmed by Biderman et al. (2018), who saw that studies found equal fidelity for both memory systems. Therefore, it is possible to have equal fidelity for both memory systems. However, Experiment 2’s results indicated that fidelity of long-term memory is not directly inherited from working memory.  This finding could form a different area to ensure its replicability.

 

References

Biderman, N., Luria, R., Teodorescu, A., Hajaj, R., & Goshen-Gottstein, Y. (2018). Working Memory Has Better Fidelity Than Long-Term Memory: The Fidelity Constraint Is Not a General Property of Memory After All. Psychological Science, 30(2), 223-237. DOI: 10.1177/0956797618813538

Brady, T., Konkle, T., Gill, J., Oliva, A., & Alvarez, G. (2013). Visual Long-Term Memory Has the Same Limit on Fidelity as Visual Working Memory. Psychological Science, 24(6), 981-990. DOI: 10.1177/0956797612465439