Visual Memory: STM and WM Concepts

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Questions and Answers

What does iconic memory primarily reflect in terms of information characteristics?

It is long-lived and limited in capacity.

It has a brief duration but large capacity. (correct)

It is not tied to spatial positions.

It represents auditory information.

How does visual short-term memory (VSTM) differ from iconic memory?

VSTM has a long life but is limited in capacity. (correct)

VSTM contains only auditory information.

VSTM does not exist as a separate memory store.

VSTM is brief and tied to spatial positions.

What was observed in the performance curves regarding iconic memory and visual short-term memory?

Performance was consistently low across all ISI durations.

Performance peaked at 0.2 ms ISI duration.

Performance depended heavily on verbal rehearsal strategies.

The two curves reflect the contributions of different memory stores. (correct)

What finding arose from the neuropsychological evidence concerning patients KF and PV?

They indicate separate systems for visual and verbal short-term memory. Signup and view all the answers

In the study by Logie (1986), what method did participants use to rehearse words?

Forming images or using rote repetition. Signup and view all the answers

What does Phillips (1974) suggest about performance at intervals less than 0.5s?

Performance is near perfect due to iconic memory. Signup and view all the answers

In Experiment 2, what was varied alongside the duration of the ISI?

The complexity of the patterns. Signup and view all the answers

What finding was observed regarding jittering in the second experiment?

Jittering did not influence the performance outcome. Signup and view all the answers

According to the findings of Experiment 3, how does iconic memory respond to masking?

Iconic memory is disrupted by masking. Signup and view all the answers

What does Phillips (1974) propose about visual STM in contrast to iconic memory?

Visual STM may utilize object-based coding. Signup and view all the answers

Which component of visual memory allows for the temporary storage and manipulation of information?

Visual WM Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary research method used in Phillips (1974) to investigate visual memory?

Sequential Matching Task Signup and view all the answers

In the context of visual memory, what is the primary difference between STM and WM?

WM includes rehearsal and attention processes while STM does not Signup and view all the answers

How did the complexity of matrices in Phillips (1974) affect the performance of observers?

More complex matrices decreased performance Signup and view all the answers

What is the role of iconic memory in the context of visual memory?

It temporarily stores visual information Signup and view all the answers

What does the term ISI refer to in Phillips (1974) experiment?

Inter-Stimulus Interval Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following best illustrates the primary focus of visual memory research in this context?

Analyzing pure visual information without labels or semantics Signup and view all the answers

Why is visual WM considered distinct from verbal WM?

Visual WM includes spatial information while verbal WM does not Signup and view all the answers

What did Logie's experimental study (1986) suggest about visual and articulatory information?

Selective interference occurs within modalities, indicating specific storage areas. Signup and view all the answers

What was the main purpose of the Visual Patterns test developed by Della Sala et al (1997)?

To assess visual STM capacity by reproducing matrices. Signup and view all the answers

How do individual features differ from bound object features in visual memory?

Bound features involve connections between multiple variables. Signup and view all the answers

What was the conclusion of the change detection task by Lee & Chun (2001) regarding VWM capacity?

VWM capacity remains unaffected by varying spatial locations. Signup and view all the answers

In terms of visual working memory (VWM), what capacity is generally accepted?

About 4 objects. Signup and view all the answers

What type of task did Della Sala et al (1999) use to dissociate visual from spatial STM?

Corsi blocks task and Visual Patterns task. Signup and view all the answers

What is one way to isolate visual working memory, as described by Luck & Vogel (1997)?

By comparing identical and differing displays of visual objects. Signup and view all the answers

According to Alvarez & Cavanagh (2004), which of the following aspects is being questioned about visual memory?

Whether different object complexities have the same impact on memory. Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

What is visual short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM)?

Visual STM is the capacity to temporarily hold visual information.
Visual WM is the framework of processes used to hold and manipulate visual information - it includes STM.
Visual STM is distinct from visual WM and is also distinct from verbal WM.

Visual STM/WM is distinct from iconic memory

STM maintains information for longer than iconic memory, which is briefer.
STM is sensitive to the complexity of the visual information presented.

Investigating Visual Memory

Phillips' (1974) study investigated visual memory using simple black and white matrices of varying complexity.
Participants saw a pair of matrices and had to judge whether they were the same or different as a function of the time interval between the matrices (ISI).

Phillips (1974) Results

For very short ISIs (less than 0.5 seconds), performance was near perfect, reflecting iconic memory.
Performance declined as the ISI increased, suggesting a reliance on STM.
Performance was also affected by the complexity of the matrices.

Phillips (1974): Experiment 2

Investigated whether the visual STM system relies on object-based coding rather than location-based.
They varied the location of the matrices (same or different), but found no effect on performance.
This strongly suggests that visual STM is not tied to absolute spatial locations.

Phillips (1974): Experiment 3

Investigated the role of masking in visual memory.
Masking is known to disrupt iconic memory but not STM.
Participants were shown a mask (a checkerboard) between the two displays containing the matrices.
Results were similar to Experiment 2, showing that masking did not disrupt performance.

Phillips (1974) Conclusion

Their experiments revealed two distinct memory stores:
- Iconic memory: A brief, high-capacity store highly sensitive to spatial location.
- Visual STM: A longer-lasting, lower-capacity store that encodes information in terms of objects rather than absolute spatial locations.

Neuropsychological Evidence for Separate Visual and Verbal STM Systems

Patients KF and PV showed impaired verbal STM (e.g., digit span) with auditory presentation, but preserved performance with visual presentation.
This suggests that visual and verbal STM are separate systems.

Logie (1986) and STM Dissociation

Participants were instructed to rehearse lists of words either through imagery or verbal repetition.
They were given a distracting task of either irrelevant patterns or words.
Irrelevent patterns disrupted the imagery group, while words disrupted the verbal repetition group.
This finding suggests that visual and verbal information are processed in separate stores.

Visual STM Capacity

The Visual Patterns Test (Della Sala et al., 1997) measures visual STM capacity by asking participants to memorize and reproduce complex black and white matrices.
Participants' capacity is defined as the maximum complexity of a matrix they reliably reproduce.

Dissociating Visual and Spatial STM

Della Sala et al. (1999) studied patients with brain damage.
They found evidence of dissociations between visual and spatial STM, suggesting that these two systems are distinct.

VWM: Objects or Features?

Luck & Vogel (1997) investigated whether VWM capacity is based on the number of features or objects.
They used a change detection task where participants had to compare two briefly presented displays containing several visual objects.
They found that VWM capacity is about 4 objects, regardless of the number of features, suggesting object-based coding.

Objects or Locations?

Lee & Chun (2001) investigated whether VWM capacity is determined by the number of objects or locations.
They varied the number of locations while holding the number of objects and features constant in a change detection task.
Results indicated that VWM capacity is unaffected by the number of locations, further supporting the object-based nature of VWM.

Does Object Complexity Matter?

Alvarez & Cavanagh (2004) and Eng, Chen & Jiang (2005) investigated whether the complexity of an object affects VWM capacity.
They compared VWM capacity for simple colored squares to more complex objects like faces.
Results showed that VWM capacity is lower for more complex objects, suggesting that the complexity of the object influences VWM capacity.

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Description

Explore the differences between visual short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) through key studies, including Phillips' 1974 investigation. This quiz will test your understanding of how these memory types function and their distinctions from iconic memory. Enhance your knowledge about visual information processing.