Exploring haptic working memory as a capacity-limited information channel

This paper focuses on a particularly crucial aspect of haptic perception: the ability to temporarily store and manipulate haptic sensory information-a capacity termed haptic working memory (HWM). Despite the importance of HWM, the extent and nature of its limitations are largely unknown. Recent research however, has demonstrated that an information-theoretic analysis is able to provide a quantitative definition of working memory capacity for other sensory modalities (visual), and is able to yield novel predictions for human performance. Here we apply this framework to the results of a psychophysical experiment on HWM for object width. This analysis is framed around rate-distortion theory, a branch of information theory that provides optimal bounds on the accuracy of information transmission subject to a fixed information capacity. We demonstrate that a simple model developed from this framework provides an excellent account of the empirical data.