Relying on the external world: Individuals variably use low- and medium-loading, but rarely high-loading, strategies when engaging visual working memory.
In naturalistic environments, people typically rely on external sampling rather than fully using their visual working memory capacity. However, when sampling becomes costly, people memorize more (i.e., loading). To investigate individual differences in sampling versus loading strategy, participants...
| Published in: | Visual Cognition Vol. 32; no. 8; pp. 657 - 675 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | equations & formulas pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Sep2024
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=185528278&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 185528278 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 13506285 BE5 jtl: Visual Cognition issn: 13506285 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2024 vid: 32 iid: 8 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 185528278 184214233 185528278 185528278 10.1080/13506285.2025.2484523 185528278 ppf: 657 ppct: 18 formats: tig: atl: Relying on the external world: Individuals variably use low- and medium-loading, but rarely high-loading, strategies when engaging visual working memory. aug: au: Böing, S. de Zwart, B. Ten Brink, A. F. Nijboer, T. C. W. Van der Stigchel, S. affil: Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands sug: subj: Memory, Short Term Copying Processes Task Performance and Analysis Human Male Female Adolescence Adult Europe Qualitative Studies Descriptive Statistics Data Analysis Software Kendall's tau Nonparametric Statistics Funding Source Adolescent: 13-18 years Adult: 19-44 years Male Female ab: In naturalistic environments, people typically rely on external sampling rather than fully using their visual working memory capacity. However, when sampling becomes costly, people memorize more (i.e., loading). To investigate individual differences in sampling versus loading strategy, participants (n=88) performed a copying task under low-cost (immediate accessibility) and high-cost (delayed accessibility) sampling conditions. Participants were categorized as low-loaders (sampling >1 per item), medium-loaders (loading ≥1 per inspection), and high-loaders (loading ≥3 per inspection). Both sampling cost and prior experience (low-cost first versus high-cost first) affected sampling frequency and category. Crucially, low- and medium-loading strategies were common, but individuals seldom exhibited a high-loading strategy that approached working memory capacity limits. Despite individual variation in their preferred strategy, participants flexibly adapted their sampling frequency to task demands without affecting performance. This suggests that while individuals show distinct working memory strategies, they can adjust these flexibly, balancing effort, goals, and prior experience. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: equations & formulas pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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