Application of systems factorial technology and hierarchical Bayesian modeling to chunking in working memory

Abstract

Although there is substantial evidence supporting the existence of chunking in Working Memory, much of it is dependent on a small range of experimental methods, many of which rely on accuracy measures. Consequently, I feel there is a need to develop a new method for studying chunking. In this paper, I propose one such method, adapted from a perceptual research method known as Systems Factorial Technology, to determine whether a given pair of features is chunked or maintained as separate objects. In addition, I test this method on two pairs of stimuli through four experiments, testing whether the feature are processed together or separately in both perception and memory. The current research finds no evidence for chunking in either feature pair considered.