Multiple Identity Tracking

The simultaneous tracking and identification of multiple moving objects require one to correctly maintain multiple corresponding bindings of identity and location information in visual working memory (VWM) as the locations are constantly changing. Hence, how to represent, maintain and update these multiple dynamic identity-location bindings in VWM becomes a great challenge to the multiple identity tracking field. The present study investigated the representation and updating mechanism of multiple bindings during the dynamic tracking process using a multiple identity tracking paradigm, manipulated the spatial configuration constructed by multiple targets when observers were asked to track multiple moving objects with distinct identities.This study was composed of three parts with eight experiments in total. In the first part, by manipulating the spatial configuration (configuration constant vs. configuration collapsed) consisting of multiple targets (Experiment1), and controlling the tracking difficulty (Experiment2), the representation mechanism of multiple identity-location bindings in VWM was explored. The second part, by combining the multiple identity tracking paradigm and the probe-detection paradigm, investigated the attention allocation among different types of targets during the entire configuration collapsed event (configuration collapsed moment:Experiment3; before collapsed:Experiment4; after collapsed:Experiment5) to further explore the influence of configuration transformation in tracking multiple moving distinct objects. The third part, by adopting a modified multiple identity tracking paradigm, examined the influence of configuration transformation in identification performance (Experiments6,8) and error types (Experiment7) of different targets, to explore the serial updating mechanism of multiple identity-location bindings.The main findings of the current study were as follows:(1) Spatial configuration plays an important role in maintaining and updating multiple identity-location bindings. Multiple bindings are not represented separately in VWM, rather are integrated into an overall configuration based on the targets' spatial locations.(2) The modification of spatial configuration influences the tracking process and attention distribution. The critical target that violates the coherence of the configuration captures more attention than the other targets during the whole configuration collapsed event.(3) The serial updating of multiple identity-location bindings relies on the spatial configuration, and destroying the configuration will cause confusion and mis-binding during the updating process.