Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Theses

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Interaction of attention and memory: a working memory model of multiple object tracking

Lapierre, Mark David ( 2013)

To accurately perceive a dynamic environment, the visual system must create mental representations of specific objects and their place in the environment, must quickly and accurately update those representations as objects move, and must be able to use those representations to direct attention to appropriate objects while ignoring those that are irrelevant. This thesis investigated these processes. Three studies were conducted, each focused on a distinct but interrelated aspect of the interaction of attention and memory processes. The first study used a training experimental design to provide evidence that representations of tracking stimuli are not constrained to a visual hemifield in the manner that deployment of attention seems to be. The second study demonstrated mutual disruption between a tracking and a visual working memory task, suggesting that tracking and visual working memory share resources of both attention and memory. The final study provided evidence to suggest that motion does not contribute to tracking when location is more informative. These results are synthesised with previous models of multiple object tracking, and with a multicomponent model of working memory, to develop a model that is able to account for each of the findings of this thesis.