Recency Effects in Visual Memory

1981 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald E. Broadbent ◽  
Margaret H. P. Broadbent

A number of studies were conducted, in each of which a series of abstract visual patterns was presented, and the subject was then asked to choose which of two test items was in the list. The items contained specifiable visual features, and similarity could therefore be varied in a relatively known way. As in earlier studies by other workers with randomly generated patterns, a recency effect was obtained. However, this effect did not depend on similarity between the items in the list, or between them and an intervening activity. Such factors do in some cases affect the average level of performance, but not the magnitude of recency. Nor was recency abolished by tasks interposed between presentation and test. These findings suggest a general mechanism of short-term memory, rather than a specifically sensory one. However, the recency effect did depend on the similarity of location of items in the visual display. Thus there is some evidence for a specific sensory store, with items arriving more recently over-writing those which came earlier and which were similar in location.

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
RACHEL L. COLE ◽  
SUSAN J. PICKERING

This study investigated the encoding strategies employed by Chinese and English language users when recalling sequences of pictured objects. The working memory performance of native English participants (n = 14) and Chinese speakers of English as a second language (Chinese ESL; n = 14) was compared using serial recall of visually-presented pictures of familiar objects with three conditions: (i) phonologically and visually distinct, (ii) phonologically similar and visually distinct, and (iii) phonologically distinct and visually similar. Digit span, visual pattern span and articulation rate were also measured. Results indicated that whilst English participants were affected by the phonological but not the visual similarity of items, the performance of Chinese ESL participants was comparable across all three conditions. No significant differences in digit span, visual memory or articulation rate were found between groups. These results are discussed in the light of our understanding of the use of cognitive resources in short-term memory in users of diverse orthographies.


2005 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eddy J. Davelaar ◽  
Yonatan Goshen-Gottstein ◽  
Amir Ashkenazi ◽  
Henk J. Haarmann ◽  
Marius Usher

1968 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harris B. Savin

Requiring a subject to say a redundant prefix before he recalls a sequence of digits impairs his ability to recall that sequence. Evidence reported below suggests that the prefix functions exactly as an extra nonredundant digit—that the subject performs exactly as if the prefix had to be learned anew on each trial.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bestue ◽  
Luis M. Martínez ◽  
Alex Gomez-Marin ◽  
Jordi Camí

How episodic memories decay is an unresolved question in cognitive neuroscience. The role of short-term mechanisms regarding the decay of episodic memories is circumscribed to set the maximum recall from which a monotonic decay occurs. However, this sequential view from the short to the long-term is not compulsory, as short-term dependent memory gains (like recency effects when memorizing a list of elements; serial-position effects) may not be translated into long-term memory differences. Moreover, producing memorable events in the laboratory faces important challenges, such as recreating realistic conditions with elevated recall, or avoiding spontaneous retrievals during memory retention (sociocultural hooks). Here we propose the use of magic to enhance the study of memory. We designed a sequence of magic tricks performed live on stage to evaluate the interaction between memory decay and serial-position effects of those tricks. The audience was asked to freely recall the tricks at four different timepoints: just after the show, 10 days, 1.5 months and 4.5 months. We discovered serial-position differences after the show that were no longer present later on, suggesting that short-term memory gains do not translate into the long-term. Illustrating the power of naturalistic stimuli to study long-term memory while interrogating the interaction between short-term and long-term mechanisms, this work is, to our knowledge, the first scientific study of the memorability of magic tricks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pekka Lahti-Nuuttila ◽  
Elisabet Service ◽  
Sini Smolander ◽  
Sari Kunnari ◽  
Eva Arkkila ◽  
...  

Previous studies of verbal short-term memory (STM) indicate that STM for serial order may be linked to language development and developmental language disorder (DLD). To clarify whether a domain-general mechanism is impaired in DLD, we studied the relations between age, non-verbal serial STM, and language competence (expressive language, receptive language, and language reasoning). We hypothesized that non-verbal serial STM differences between groups of children with DLD and typically developing (TD) children are linked to their language acquisition differences. Fifty-one children with DLD and sixty-six TD children participated as part of the HelSLI project in this cross-sectional study. The children were 4–6-year-old monolingual native Finnish speakers. They completed several tests of language and cognitive functioning, as well as new game-like tests of visual and auditory non-verbal serial STM. We used regression analyses to examine how serial STM moderates the effect of age on language. A non-verbal composite measure of serial visual and auditory STM moderated cross-sectional development of receptive language in the children with DLD. This moderation was not observed in the TD children. However, we found more rapid cross-sectional development of non-verbal serial STM in the TD children than in the children with DLD. The results suggest that children with DLD may be more likely to have compromised general serial STM processing and that superior non-verbal serial STM may be associated with better language acquisition in children with DLD.


2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Werner X. Schneider ◽  
Heiner Deubel ◽  
Maria-Barbara Wesenick

Cowan defines a chunk as “a collection of concepts that have strong associations to one another and much weaker associations to other chunks currently in use.” This definition does not impose any constraints on the nature and number of elements that can be bound into a chunk. We present an experiment to demonstrate that such limitations exist for visual short-term memory, and that their analysis may lead to important insights into properties of visual memory.


1972 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 414-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neal E. A. Kroll

Trigrams were presented visually or auditorily and followed by a 12 s retention interval filled with shadowing numbers or letters. Auditory memory letters followed by letter shadowing were recalled less than auditory memory letters followed by number shadowing or visual memory letters followed by either type of shadowing. The latter three conditions did not differ among themselves. An analysis of the recall intrusions suggested that forgetting of auditory memory letters followed by letter shadowing was caused mainly by a confusion between covert rehearsals and shadowing activity, while forgetting in the other three conditions was caused primarily by proactive interference from earlier memory trials.


1970 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 539-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Chovan

The research investigated the effects of vocal mediating responses on short-term memory, with young severely ( N = 15) and profoundly deaf children ( N = 15). The purpose was to determine to what extent vocal responses are dependent upon auditory stimulation on recall, on three different tasks. The findings suggested that whether vocal responses were effective mediators for the deaf depended not only upon the meaningfulness of stimulus material but also the amount of attention directed to the verbal act. Where considerable effort had to be extended to the expressive functions, it seemed to be at the expense of effective sensory input; vocal responses by the severely deaf appeared to be more interfering than facilitating on visual-memory tasks.


2001 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan A. Rose ◽  
Judith F. Feldman ◽  
Jeffery J. Jankowski

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