Visual ZIP files: Viewers beat capacity limits by compressing redundant features across objects.

Given a set of simple objects, visual working memory capacity drops from 3 to 4 units down to only 1 to 2 units when the display rotates. But real-world STEM experts somehow overcome these limits. Here, we study a potential domain-general mechanism that might help experts exceed these limits: compressing information based on redundant visual features.

Visual chunking as a strategy for spatial thinking in STEM.

Working memory capacity is known to predict the performance of novices and experts on a variety of tasks found in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). A common feature of STEM tasks is that they require the problem solver to encode and transform complex spatial information depicted in disciplinary representations that seemingly exceed the known capacity limits of visuospatial working memory. Understanding these limits and how visuospatial information is encoded and transformed differently by STEM learners presents new avenues for addressing the challenges students face while navigating STEM classes and degree programs.

Rapid eye-fixation training without eyetracking.

Maintenance of stable central eye fixation is crucial for a variety of behavioral, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging experiments. Naive observers in these experiments are not typically accustomed to fixating, either requiring the use of cumbersome and costly eyetracking or producing confounds in results. We devised a flicker display that produced an easily detectable visual phenomenon whenever the eyes moved.