Abstract
Research in visual perception and memory suggests that individuals have the ability to form statistical summaries of multiple features within a display. Debate exists regarding the amount of information from the display that contributes to the integrated representation (all information or a subset). Recent work from our lab suggests that orientation ensemble reports can be modeled well by a subset of features from a display. Experimental results from a whole-report task are used to inform a non-selective transfer function of information into working memory. The items encoded into working memory are then averaged to model an ensemble report. The modeled ensemble response distribution matches well to the distribution of subject responses on an ensemble averaging task. The non-selective transfer model is compared to other possible theoretical model formulations. The current experimental and modeling results support the theory that orientation ensemble averages are summaries of items within working memory.