The capacity and cognitive processing of vibrotactile working memory for frequency

Chundi Wang,Xuemin Zhang,Yu Dong,Da-Hui Wang,Hu Deng

doi:10.1007/s12144-021-02212-6

Abstract

A hallmark of working memory (WM) is its limited capacity. While visual and verbal domains of WM are able to store multiple items, the capacity of parametric vibrotactile WM (vtWM) has not yet been established for supra-threshold, one-dimensional sensory vibrotactile frequencies. The present study extends the standard delayed match-to-sample vibrotactile discrimination task to determine the capacity of the vtWM and its cognitive mechanism. Here, by presenting subjects with 2 to 6 vibratory frequencies sequentially in each trial, the present study demonstrates that it is possible to retain about only two vibrotactile frequencies information in vtWM. The results also showed that the capacity of vtWM does not depend on whether sequentially presented vibrotactile frequencies are delivered to the same or to different fingers. At the same time, the rate of correct report depends on sequence length and when in the sequence the stimuli are presented, suggesting the dynamic updating of vtWM similar to that of visual WM.

Highlights

IntroductionThe vibrotactile working memory (vtWM) task requires the memorization of frequency of tactile vibrations (a continuous parameter), and it is considered to be a parametric WM task (Spitzer and Blankenburg 2011)
The vibrotactile working memory task requires the memorization of frequency of tactile vibrations, and it is considered to be a parametric WM task (Spitzer and Blankenburg 2011)
(1) Since the frequency of tactile vibrations is an analog and one-dimensional sensory stimulus, which is less unlikely to be affected by grouping or rehearsal than verbal and visual information, we hypothesized that the capacity of vibrotactile working memory (vtWM) would be smaller than that of the verbal, visual WM, and the tactile memory for location, i.e., less than three units

Summary

Introduction

The vibrotactile working memory (vtWM) task requires the memorization of frequency of tactile vibrations (a continuous parameter), and it is considered to be a parametric WM task (Spitzer and Blankenburg 2011). Modalities of the vibrotactile frequencies are different from the visual and auditory modalities. Vibrotactile frequencies are abstract (analog) features induced through a somatic sensation. Unlike visual and auditory information, which is characterized by a conjunction of features, frequency of tactile vibrations is a scalar analogue value and one-dimensional sensory stimulus. Grouping or chunking of items may influence the capacity of visual WM and rehearsal has effects on the capacity of verbal WM (Cowan 2010). Chunking or rehearsal is unlikely to affect the capacity of vtWM, since the frequency of tactile vibrations is an analog and one-

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