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Cited by 1,341

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 1 of the 1 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The Capacity of Visual Short-Term Memory is Set Both by Visual Information Load and by Number of Objects

Open access
Alvarez, G.A., Cavanagh, P.·2004·Psychological Science
DOI 10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01502006.x
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Abstract

Previous research has suggested that visual short-term memory has a fixed capacity of about four objects. However, we found that capacity varied substantially across the five stimulus classes we examined, ranging from 1.6 for shaded cubes to 4.4 for colors (estimated using a change detection task). We also estimated the information load per item in each class, using visual search rate. The changes we measured in memory capacity across classes were almost exactly mirrored by changes in the opposite direction in visual search rate (r 2 = .992 between search rate and the reciprocal of memory capacity). The greater the information load of each item in a stimulus class (as indicated by a slower search rate), the fewer items from that class one can hold in memory. Extrapolating this linear relationship reveals that there is also an upper bound on capacity of approximately four or five objects. Thus, both the visual information load and number of objects impose capacity limits on visual short-term memory.

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Metadata

Authors
Alvarez, G. A., & Cavanagh, P.
Venue
Psychological Science
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2004-02
Volume
15
Issue
2
Pages
106-111
ISSN
  • 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-9280
DOI
10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01502006.x
OpenAlex
W2110687866
Cited by
1,341
References
1
FWCI
13.28
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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