Is memory better for objects than for separate single features? The temporal hypothesis.

Working memory, the system allowing for a simultaneous maintenance and processing of information, is typically conceived as a capacity limited system. A proposed method to transcend its standard maintenance capacity is to maintain multifeature objects, instead of isolated features. Several studies have shown that multifeature memory items are stored as objects instead of separate single features in working memory, this object-based maintenance being thought to result in an increase in the number of features that can be maintained. We present a series of 4 experiments that challenge the belief that object-based maintenance per se is at the origin of the better memory for features in case of multifeature item presentation. Instead, we propose an account based on the temporal parameters of the memory item's presentation, which explains memory performance in terms of the time available for encoding/consolidation per feature. (PsycINFO Database Record