Independent effects of resolution and set size on recognition memory for unfamiliar faces

Abstract

Visual working memory (VWM) is a limited-capacity resource for the temporary storage of visual information (Cowan, 2001). Selective visual attention can protect VWM capacity by filtering relevant from irrelevant information during encoding or maintenance (Griffin & Nobre, 2003). The current study was designed to investigate the consequences of attentional selection on the accuracy of recognition for unfamiliar faces. We used a Change Detection task to measure d’ for cued and uncued faces in displays of 1, 2 and 4 faces, in a free-view (Experiment 1) and single-fixation Experiment 2) displays. In both experiments, recall accuracy was greater for cued than uncued faces. Recognition accuracy was also higher in free-view compared to single fixation displays and declined as a function of set size. This suggests the acquisition of high spatial frequency information during saccadic sampling improves recognition memory. Importantly, this advantage appears to be independent of the decrease in accuracy associated with set size, indicating that increasing the resolution of memoranda in VWM does not dilute resources in the same way as increasing the number of objects to remember.