PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Aspen H. Yoo
AU  - Luigi Acerbi
AU  - Wei ji Ma
TI  - Uncertainty is Maintained and Used in Working Memory
AID  - 10.1101/2020.10.06.328310
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.10.06.328310
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/08/2020.10.06.328310.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/08/2020.10.06.328310.full
AB  - 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 StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.