Organization of visual short-term memory

The authors examined the organization of visual short-term memory (VSTM). U sing a change-detection task, they reported that VSTM stores relational inf ormation between individual items. This relational processing is mediated b y the organization of items into spatial configurations. The spatial config uration of visual objects is important for VSTM of spatial locations, color s, and shapes. When color VSTM is compared with location VSTM, spatial conf iguration plays an integral role because configuration is important for col or VSTM, whereas color is not important for location VSTM. The authors also examined the role of attention and found that the formation of configurati on is modulated by both top-down and bottom-up attentional factors. In summ ary, the authors proposed that VSTM stores the relational information of in dividual visual items on the basis of global spatial configuration.