RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Strategy-dependent effects of working-memory limitations on human perceptual decision-making JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2021.09.03.458917 DO 10.1101/2021.09.03.458917 A1 Schapiro, Kyra A1 Josić, Krešimir A1 Kilpatrick, Zachary P. A1 Gold, Joshua I. YR 2021 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/09/06/2021.09.03.458917.abstract AB Deliberative decisions based on an accumulation of evidence over time depend on working memory, and working memory has limitations, but how these limitations affect deliberative decision-making is not understood. We used human psychophysics to assess the impact of working-memory limitations on the fidelity of a continuous decision variable. Participants decided the average location of multiple visual targets. This computed, continuous decision variable degraded with time and capacity in a manner that depended critically on the strategy used to form the decision variable. This dependence reflected whether the decision variable was computed either: 1) immediately upon observing the evidence, and thus stored as a single value in memory; or 2) at the time of the report, and thus stored as multiple values in memory. These results provide important constraints on how the brain computes and maintains temporally dynamic decision variables.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.