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VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
PRODID:UW-Madison-Physics-Events
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SEQUENCE:0
UID:UW-Physics-Event-3600
DTSTART:20150203T180500Z
DTEND:20150203T190000Z
DTSTAMP:20260419T142444Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20150122T232228Z
LOCATION:4274 Chamberlin Hall (Refreshments will be served)
SUMMARY:Re-conceptualizing visuospatial memory development as an incre
 ase in dynamic stability \, Chaos & Complex Systems Seminar\, Vanessa 
 Simmering\, UW Department of Psychology
DESCRIPTION:For over a century\, developmental psychologists have docu
 mented how visuospatial memory improves from infancy through early chi
 ldhood. A variety of theories have been proposed to account for these 
 improvements\, with most addressing only a small developmental period 
 and/or single behavioral task\, making these theories difficult to gen
 eralize. For example\, Piaget attributed changes between 8 and 12 mont
 hs in infants' errors in a search task to the acquisition of object pe
 rmanence\, but infants between 4 and 16 months show other improvements
  in the durability and capacity of memory\, in both search and looking
  tasks\, that cannot be explained by this theory. The goal of my resea
 rch program is to advance a comprehensive theory of visuospatial memor
 y development to explain multiple improvements across tasks and age gr
 oups. My colleagues and I have proposed a dynamic systems account of m
 emory development which emphasizes the processes that underlie the for
 mation\, maintenance\, and use of memory representations across behavi
 oral contexts. By formalizing this theory in a dynamic neural field mo
 del\, my research shows that a host of developmental improvements in m
 emory can emerge through a common change in the dynamic stability of t
 he memory system. I will present empirical evidence that memory capaci
 ty is not fixed but varies with task contexts. Furthermore\, my model 
 simulations predicted that different task structures will yield incons
 istent capacity estimates within the same group of participants while 
 still showing correlations in performance across these tasks. These re
 sults suggest that a full explanation of visuospatial memory developme
 nt will require understanding how memory functions in the moment of th
 e task at hand. 
URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=3600
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