Almost all models of visual memory implicitly assume that errors in mnemonic representations are linearly related to distance in stimulus space. Here we show that neither memory nor perception are appropriately scaled in stimulus space; instead, they are based on a transformed similarity representation that is nonlinearly related to stimulus space. This result calls into question a foundational assumption of extant models of visual working memory. Once psychophysical similarity is taken into account, aspects of memory that have been thought to demonstrate a fixed working memory capacity of around three or four items and to require fundamentally different representations—across different stimuli, tasks and types of memory—can be parsimoniously explained with a unitary signal detection framework. These results have substantial implications for the study of visual memory and lead to a substantial reinterpretation of the relationship between perception, working memory and long-term memory.

几乎所有的视觉记忆模型都隐含地假定助记符表示中的错误与刺激空间中的距离线性相关。在这里，我们表明，在刺激空间中，记忆和知觉均未得到适当缩放。相反，它们基于与刺激空间非线性相关的变换相似表示。这个结果使人们对现有的视觉工作记忆模型的基础假设提出了质疑。一旦考虑了心理生理相似性，就可以用简单的方式解释记忆的某些方面，这些方面表现出大约三到四个项的固定工作记忆能力，并需要根本不同的表示（跨越不同的刺激，任务和记忆类型）。单一信号检测框架。