When memories collide: moving simultaneously active memory representations in mind

The flexible control over the contents of our working memory (WM) frees us from reflexive behavior and supports central cognitive behaviors such as planning and language comprehension.

WM capacity is strongly correlated with individual intelligence and it is one of the most studied aspects of human cognition.

A major limitation of previous research on visually related WM is that it has typically required experimental subjects to not move their heads or gaze to create a tightly controlled environment. In everyday life, however, gaze position constantly changes as we walk around, turn our heads, and make eye-movements.

The focus of this project is to start mapping the mechanisms that underlie WM processes in real-life, dynamic environments.

We will conduct a series of behavioral and EEG experiments that utilize instructed eye-movements while subjects use their WM.

This will allow us to determine the impact of gaze shifts while maintaining the experimental control of classical WM experiments. We will simultaneously record behavior, EEG, and gaze shifts to allow direct inference.

The goal is to understand how WM representations are transformed following gaze shifts to account for the new frame of reference, and how this impacts behavior. This will ultimately provide us with fundamental insights on how we update contents of WM to serve future behavior. The project will therefore provide important insights into the workings of working memory in real life scenarios.