A New Toolbox to Distinguish the Sources of Spatial Memory Error

Overview

Journal J Vis

Specialty Ophthalmology

Date 2020 Dec 8

PMID 33289797

Citations 8

Authors

John P Grogan

Sean J Fallon

Nahid Zokaei

Masud Husain

Elizabeth J Coulthard

Sanjay G Manohar

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Studying the sources of errors in memory recall has proven invaluable for understanding the mechanisms of working memory (WM). While one-dimensional memory features (e.g., color, orientation) can be analyzed using existing mixture modeling toolboxes to separate the influence of imprecision, guessing, and misbinding (the tendency to confuse features that belong to different memoranda), such toolboxes are not currently available for two-dimensional spatial WM tasks. Here we present a method to isolate sources of spatial error in tasks where participants have to report the spatial location of an item in memory, using two-dimensional mixture models. The method recovers simulated parameters well and is robust to the influence of response distributions and biases, as well as number of nontargets and trials. To demonstrate the model, we fit data from a complex spatial WM task and show the recovered parameters correspond well with previous spatial WM findings and with recovered parameters on a one-dimensional analogue of this task, suggesting convergent validity for this two-dimensional modeling approach. Because the extra dimension allows greater separation of memoranda and responses, spatial tasks turn out to be much better for separating misbinding from imprecision and guessing than one-dimensional tasks. Code for these models is freely available in the MemToolbox2D package and is integrated to work with the commonly used MATLAB package MemToolbox.

Citing Articles

Dynamic resource allocation in spatial working memory during full and partial report tasks.

McAteer S, Ablott E, McGregor A, Smith D J Vis. 2023; 23(2):10.

PMID: 36802333 PMC: 9946046. DOI: 10.1167/jov.23.2.10.

The Relationship between Short- and Long-Term Memory Is Preserved across the Age Range.

cepukaityte G, Thom J, Kallmayer M, Nobre A, Zokaei N Brain Sci. 2023; 13(1).

PMID: 36672087 PMC: 9856639. DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13010106.

Oculomotor rehearsal in visuospatial working memory.

McAteer S, McGregor A, Smith D Atten Percept Psychophys. 2022; 85(1):261-275.

PMID: 36414815 PMC: 9816268. DOI: 10.3758/s13414-022-02601-4.

Dissociable effects of -ε4 and β-amyloid pathology on visual working memory.

Lu K, Nicholas J, Pertzov Y, Grogan J, Husain M, Pavisic I Nat Aging. 2021; 1(11):1002-1009.

PMID: 34806027 PMC: 7612005. DOI: 10.1038/s43587-021-00117-4.

Evidence from theta-burst stimulation that age-related de-differentiation of the hippocampal network is functional for episodic memory.

Hermiller M, Dave S, Wert S, VanHaerents S, Riley M, Weintraub S Neurobiol Aging. 2021; 109:145-157.

PMID: 34740076 PMC: 8671378. DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.09.018.

References

Pertzov Y, Dong M, Peich M, Husain M . Forgetting what was where: the fragility of object-location binding. PLoS One. 2012; 7(10):e48214. PMC: 3485137. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048214. View

Liang Y, Pertzov Y, Nicholas J, Henley S, Crutch S, Woodward F . Visual short-term memory binding deficit in familial Alzheimer's disease. Cortex. 2016; 78:150-164. PMC: 4865502. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.01.015. View

Stark S, Yassa M, Stark C . Individual differences in spatial pattern separation performance associated with healthy aging in humans. Learn Mem. 2010; 17(6):284-8. PMC: 2884287. DOI: 10.1101/lm.1768110. View

Schneegans S, Bays P . Neural Architecture for Feature Binding in Visual Working Memory. J Neurosci. 2017; 37(14):3913-3925. PMC: 5394900. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3493-16.2017. View

Schneegans S, Bays P . No fixed item limit in visuospatial working memory. Cortex. 2016; 83:181-93. PMC: 5043407. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.07.021. View

Pertzov Y, Heider M, Liang Y, Husain M . Effects of healthy ageing on precision and binding of object location in visual short term memory. Psychol Aging. 2014; 30(1):26-35. PMC: 4360752. DOI: 10.1037/a0038396. View

McNab F, Zeidman P, Rutledge R, Smittenaar P, Brown H, Adams R . Age-related changes in working memory and the ability to ignore distraction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015; 112(20):6515-8. PMC: 4443336. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1504162112. View

Ma W, Husain M, Bays P . Changing concepts of working memory. Nat Neurosci. 2014; 17(3):347-56. PMC: 4159388. DOI: 10.1038/nn.3655. View

Pertzov Y, Manohar S, Husain M . Rapid forgetting results from competition over time between items in visual working memory. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2016; 43(4):528-536. PMC: 5377990. DOI: 10.1037/xlm0000328. View

10.

Zokaei N, Nour M, Sillence A, Drew D, Adcock J, Stacey R . Binding deficits in visual short-term memory in patients with temporal lobe lobectomy. Hippocampus. 2018; 29(2):63-67. PMC: 6492115. DOI: 10.1002/hipo.22998. View

11.

Bays P, Catalao R, Husain M . The precision of visual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource. J Vis. 2009; 9(10):7.1-11. PMC: 3118422. DOI: 10.1167/9.10.7. View

12.

Zokaei N, McNeill A, Proukakis C, Beavan M, Jarman P, Korlipara P . Visual short-term memory deficits associated with GBA mutation and Parkinson's disease. Brain. 2014; 137(Pt 8):2303-11. PMC: 4107740. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awu143. View

13.

Zokaei N, cepukaityte G, Board A, Mackay C, Husain M, Nobre A . Dissociable effects of the apolipoprotein-E (APOE) gene on short- and long-term memories. Neurobiol Aging. 2018; 73:115-122. PMC: 6261846. DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2018.09.017. View

14.

Bays P, Husain M . Dynamic shifts of limited working memory resources in human vision. Science. 2008; 321(5890):851-4. PMC: 2532743. DOI: 10.1126/science.1158023. View

15.

van den Berg R, Shin H, Chou W, George R, Ma W . Variability in encoding precision accounts for visual short-term memory limitations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012; 109(22):8780-5. PMC: 3365149. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1117465109. View

16.

Fallon S, Mattiesing R, Muhammed K, Manohar S, Husain M . Fractionating the Neurocognitive Mechanisms Underlying Working Memory: Independent Effects of Dopamine and Parkinson's Disease. Cereb Cortex. 2017; 27(12):5727-5738. PMC: 5939219. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhx242. View

17.

Parra M, Abrahams S, Logie R, Mendez L, Lopera F, Della Sala S . Visual short-term memory binding deficits in familial Alzheimer's disease. Brain. 2010; 133(9):2702-13. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awq148. View

18.

Rajsic J, Wilson D . Asymmetrical access to color and location in visual working memory. Atten Percept Psychophys. 2014; 76(7):1902-13. DOI: 10.3758/s13414-014-0723-2. View

19.

Zokaei N, Burnett Heyes S, Gorgoraptis N, Budhdeo S, Husain M . Working memory recall precision is a more sensitive index than span. J Neuropsychol. 2014; 9(2):319-29. DOI: 10.1111/jnp.12052. View

20.

Rolinski M, Zokaei N, Baig F, Giehl K, Quinnell T, Zaiwalla Z . Visual short-term memory deficits in REM sleep behaviour disorder mirror those in Parkinson's disease. Brain. 2015; 139(Pt 1):47-53. PMC: 4949392. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awv334. View