Visual working memory involves the way we memorize, maintain, update, and remove visual information, e.g. “how do you remember someone’s face?” In the lab, visual working memory is mostly studies with very simple stimuli. For instance, participants are asked to remember an array consisting of a handful of colored squares. Memory is sometimes measured by a recognition task (“Is this the color you remember for this square?”) or a recall task (“Please select the color of this square from the color circle”). We developed a mathematical model, the Interference Model of visual working memory, which explains data from both tasks. We are currently working on integrating this model with a model for other forms of working memory, such as recalling a list of words, or reproducing a list of spatial locations. We also investigate how the precision of one’s memory is related to one’s confidence in remembering.
