Configural representations in spatial working memory |
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Authors: | Aysecan Boduroglu Priti Shah |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Psychology, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkeyaysecan.boduroglu@boun.edu.tr;3. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, NJ, USA |
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Abstract: | Two studies investigate the nature of representations in spatial working memory, directly addressing the question of whether people represent the configuration information above and beyond independent positional information when representing multiple sequentially presented locations. In Experiment 1, participants performed a location memory task in which they recalled the location of objects that were presented sequentially on a screen. Comparison of participants' data with simulated data modelled to represent independent positional representation of spatial locations revealed that participants represented the configural properties of shorter sequences (3 and 4 locations) but not of longer ones (5 and 7 locations). Experiment 2 employed a sequential recognition task in which participants were asked to judge whether two consequently presented spatial sequences were identical. These experiments confirmed sensitivity to configural properties of spatial sequences. |
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Keywords: | Spatial working memory Representations Configurations Independent coding Relative positions |
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