Resource Limitations in Visual Cognition
Title
Resource Limitations in Visual Cognition
Author
Liverence, Brandon M.
Franconeri, Steven L.
Research Area
Cognition and Emotions
Topic
Cognitive Development
Abstract
Visual attention and visual working memory are two of the core resources that support visual perception. Foundational research has demonstrated that these resources are highly limited, but an active debate concerns exactly how they are limited. While many classic studies suggested that these resources are fundamentally discrete, with fixed capacity of 3–4 objects maximum, a number of recent studies have argued that these resources are fundamentally continuous, with no fixed upper‐bound to the number of objects that can be attended or remembered. This entry reviews the state of this debate, and shows how convergence between these (often separate) areas of research is a major emerging trend in the field of visual cognition.