TY - JOUR
T1 - Short-term visual memory for location in depth
T2 - A U-shaped function of time
AU - Reeves, Adam
AU - Lei, Quan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/10/1
Y1 - 2017/10/1
N2 - Short-term visual memory was studied by displaying arrays of four or five numerals, each numeral in its own depth plane, followed after various delays by an arrow cue shown in one of the depth planes. Subjects reported the numeral at the depth cued by the arrow. Accuracy fell with increasing cue delay for the first 500 ms or so, and then recovered almost fully. This dipping pattern contrasts with the usual iconic decay observed for memory traces. The dip occurred with or without a verbal or color–shape retention load on working memory. In contrast, accuracy did not change with delay when a tonal cue replaced the arrow cue. We hypothesized that information concerning the depths of the numerals decays over time in sensory memory, but that cued recall is aided later on by transfer to a visual memory specialized for depth. This transfer is sufficiently rapid with a tonal cue to compensate for the sensory decay, but it is slowed by the need to tag the arrow cue’s depth relative to the depths of the numerals, exposing a dip when sensation has decayed and transfer is not yet complete. A model with a fixed rate of sensory decay and varied transfer rates across individuals captures the dip as well as the cue modality effect.
AB - Short-term visual memory was studied by displaying arrays of four or five numerals, each numeral in its own depth plane, followed after various delays by an arrow cue shown in one of the depth planes. Subjects reported the numeral at the depth cued by the arrow. Accuracy fell with increasing cue delay for the first 500 ms or so, and then recovered almost fully. This dipping pattern contrasts with the usual iconic decay observed for memory traces. The dip occurred with or without a verbal or color–shape retention load on working memory. In contrast, accuracy did not change with delay when a tonal cue replaced the arrow cue. We hypothesized that information concerning the depths of the numerals decays over time in sensory memory, but that cued recall is aided later on by transfer to a visual memory specialized for depth. This transfer is sufficiently rapid with a tonal cue to compensate for the sensory decay, but it is slowed by the need to tag the arrow cue’s depth relative to the depths of the numerals, exposing a dip when sensation has decayed and transfer is not yet complete. A model with a fixed rate of sensory decay and varied transfer rates across individuals captures the dip as well as the cue modality effect.
KW - Binocular vision
KW - Short-term memory
KW - Stereopsis
KW - Visual working memory
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U2 - 10.3758/s13414-017-1366-x
DO - 10.3758/s13414-017-1366-x
M3 - Article
C2 - 28685489
AN - SCOPUS:85021941100
SN - 1943-3921
VL - 79
SP - 1917
EP - 1932
JO - Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics
JF - Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics
IS - 7
ER -