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Visual working memory capacity and stimulus categories: a behavioral and electrophysiological investigation

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Abstract

It has recently been suggested that visual working memory capacity may vary depending on the type of material that has to be memorized. Here, we use a delayed match-to-sample paradigm and event-related potentials (ERP) to investigate the neural correlates that are linked to these changes in capacity. A variable number of stimuli (1–4) were presented in each visual hemifield. Participants were required to selectively memorize the stimuli presented in one hemifield. Following memorization, a test stimulus was presented that had to be matched against the memorized item(s). Two types of stimuli were used: one set consisting of discretely different objects (discrete stimuli) and one set consisting of more continuous variations along a single dimension (continuous stimuli). Behavioral results indicate that memory capacity was much larger for the discrete stimuli, when compared with the continuous stimuli. This behavioral effect correlated with an increase in a contralateral negative slow wave ERP component that is known to be involved in memorization. We therefore conclude that the larger working memory capacity for discrete stimuli can be directly related to an increase in activity in visual areas and propose that this increase in visual activity is due to interactions with other, non-visual representations.

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Acknowledgments

Data collection was conducted at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. We wish to thank Paul Groot and Jarik den Hartog for technical support. The first author was supported by the SYLFF. A small subset of data collected in this study has been used by Talsma (2008) for the purpose of validating an EEG artifact detection method.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Sofia Diamantopoulou & Leo Poom

  2. Department of Clinical Neuropsychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Sofia Diamantopoulou

  3. MR Center, University Children’s Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Peter Klaver

  4. Institute of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Peter Klaver

  5. Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Peter Klaver

  6. Department of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Durk Talsma

  7. Department of Cognitive Psychology and Ergonomics, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Durk Talsma

  8. Department of Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Durk Talsma

Authors
  1. Sofia Diamantopoulou
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  2. Leo Poom
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  3. Peter Klaver
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  4. Durk Talsma
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Correspondence to Durk Talsma.

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Diamantopoulou, S., Poom, L., Klaver, P. et al. Visual working memory capacity and stimulus categories: a behavioral and electrophysiological investigation. Exp Brain Res 209, 501–513 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2536-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2536-z

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