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Abstract
Short-term memory storage can be divided into separate subsystems for verbal information
and visual information, and recent studies have begun to delineate the neural substrates
of these working-memory systems. Although the verbal storage system has been well
characterized, the storage capacity of visual working memory has not yet been established
for simple, suprathreshold features or for conjunctions of features. Here we demonstrate
that it is possible to retain information about only four colours or orientations
in visual working memory at one time. However, it is also possible to retain both
the colour and the orientation of four objects, indicating that visual working memory
stores integrated objects rather than individual features. Indeed, objects defined
by a conjunction of four features can be retained in working memory just as well as
single-feature objects, allowing sixteen individual features to be retained when distributed
across four objects. Thus, the capacity of visual working memory must be understood
in terms of integrated objects rather than individual features, which places significant
constraints on cognitive and neurobiological models of the temporary storage of visual
information.