Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Uncertainty is Maintained and Used in Working Memory

View ORCID ProfileAspen H. Yoo, View ORCID ProfileLuigi Acerbi, View ORCID ProfileWei ji Ma
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.06.328310
Aspen H. Yoo
1Department of Psychology, New York University, NY, USA
2Center for Neural Science, New York University, NY, USA
3Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Aspen H. Yoo
  • For correspondence: aspen.yoo@nyu.edu
Luigi Acerbi
1Department of Psychology, New York University, NY, USA
2Center for Neural Science, New York University, NY, USA
4Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Luigi Acerbi
Wei ji Ma
1Department of Psychology, New York University, NY, USA
2Center for Neural Science, New York University, NY, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Wei ji Ma
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

1 Abstract

What are the contents of working memory? In both behavioral and neural computational models, the working memory representation of a stimulus is typically described by a single number, namely a point estimate of that stimulus. Here, we asked if people also maintain the uncertainty associated with a memory, and if people use this uncertainty in subsequent decisions. We collected data in a two-condition orientation change detection task; while both conditions measured whether people used memory uncertainty, only one required maintaining it. For each condition, we compared an optimal Bayesian observer model, in which the observer uses an accurate representation of uncertainty in their decision, to one in which the observer does not. We find that this “Use Uncertainty” model fits better for all participants in both conditions. In the first condition, this result suggests that people use uncertainty optimally in a working memory task when that uncertainty information is available at the time of decision, confirming earlier results. Critically, the results of the second condition suggest that this uncertainty information was maintained in working memory. We test model variants and find that our conclusions do not depend on our assumptions about the observer’s encoding process, inference process, or decision rule. Our results provide evidence that people have uncertainty that reflects their memory precision at an item-specific level, maintain this information over a working memory delay, and use it implicitly in a way consistent with an optimal observer. These results challenge existing computational models of working memory to update their frameworks to represent uncertainty.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • Funding: This work was supported by NIH grant R01EY020958 to W.J.M. and training grant T32 EY7136-25 to A.H.Y.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted October 08, 2020.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Uncertainty is Maintained and Used in Working Memory
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Uncertainty is Maintained and Used in Working Memory
Aspen H. Yoo, Luigi Acerbi, Wei ji Ma
bioRxiv 2020.10.06.328310; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.06.328310
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Uncertainty is Maintained and Used in Working Memory
Aspen H. Yoo, Luigi Acerbi, Wei ji Ma
bioRxiv 2020.10.06.328310; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.06.328310

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (2646)
  • Biochemistry (5265)
  • Bioengineering (3678)
  • Bioinformatics (15796)
  • Biophysics (7253)
  • Cancer Biology (5627)
  • Cell Biology (8095)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (4765)
  • Ecology (7516)
  • Epidemiology (2059)
  • Evolutionary Biology (10576)
  • Genetics (7730)
  • Genomics (10130)
  • Immunology (5192)
  • Microbiology (13904)
  • Molecular Biology (5384)
  • Neuroscience (30779)
  • Paleontology (215)
  • Pathology (879)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (1524)
  • Physiology (2254)
  • Plant Biology (5022)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1041)
  • Synthetic Biology (1385)
  • Systems Biology (4146)
  • Zoology (812)