Abstract
The capacity of visual working memory (VWM) refers to the amount of visual information that can be maintained in mind at once, readily accessible for ongoing tasks. In healthy young adults, the capacity limit of VWM corresponds to about three simple objects. While some researchers argued that VWM capacity becomes adult-like in early years of life, others claimed that the capacity of VWM continues to develop beyond middle childhood. Here we assessed whether VWM capacity reaches adult levels in adolescence. Using an adaptation of the visual change detection task, we measured VWM capacity estimates in 13-year-olds, 16-year-olds, and young adults. We tested whether the capacity estimates observed in early or later years of adolescence were comparable to the estimates obtained from adults. Our results demonstrated that the capacity of VWM continues to develop throughout adolescence, not reaching adult levels even in 16-year-olds. These findings suggest that VWM capacity displays a prolonged development, similar to the protracted trajectories observed in various other aspects of cognition.
Highlights
The capacity of visual working memory (VWM) refers to the amount of visual information that can be maintained in the mind at once, readily available for rapid access (Luck and Vogel, 2013)
The present study investigated whether VWM capacity continues to develop through adolescence into adulthood
Our results demonstrated that the capacity of VWM does not reach adult levels either in earlier or later years of adolescence
Summary
The capacity of visual working memory (VWM) refers to the amount of visual information that can be maintained in the mind at once, readily available for rapid access (Luck and Vogel, 2013). Electrophysiological and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies provide further evidence for such limited capacity in VWM (Todd and Marois, 2004; Vogel and Machizawa, 2004). The estimates of such discrete capacity limits differ markedly across individuals (Vogel and Machizawa, 2004; Rouder et al, 2008). In the studies that claimed the VWM capacity reached adult levels in early years of life (Ross-Sheehy et al, 2003; Riggs et al, 2006), the memory arrays were presented for 500 ms. To rule out the possibility that the poorer performance of the adolescents was mainly driven by a lack of sufficient exposure to the memory array, in Experiment 2, we presented the memory arrays for both short and longer durations
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
