The locus of the experimental effects in the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task

A central assumption of studies using the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) technique is that it taps purely perceptual processes. In an experiment testing this assumption, subjects were presented with seven-word sentences that were either completely intact or had their final three words replaced by three extraneous words. The subjects were significantly less accurate in reporting the first four unchanged words of the sentences in the latter condition. Contrary to assumption, this result indicates that postperceptual factors are critical in the task. It is therefore argued that theoretical conclusions based on the technique should be treated cautiously until the locus of each effect has been established.     

Effects of task factors on selection by color in the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task

In five experiments, we examined task factors influencing selection by color in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. Participants were required to respond to the presence or case of a target letter presented within an RSVP sequence, and they were cued as to the color in which that target was most likely to occur. The first two experiments explored the effect of task difficulty. It was found that a change from the discrimination of upper- versus lowercase targets to the detection of an exact shape had no influence on the color-cuing effect. In contrast, increasing letter set discriminability and decreasing color discriminability reduced the color-cuing effect considerably, although they did not eliminate it. In the third and fourth experiments, the frequency of valid trials was reduced, removing the incentive to use the color information. Again, a small benefit remained, indicating partially automatic and strategic color-processing components. Finally, the fifth experiment showed that an increase in perceptual load had no influence on the color-cuing effect. Together, these five experiments provide further evidence of the robustness of direct selection by color.     

Requirements for minicomputer operating systems for human experimentation and an implementation on a 4K PDP-8 computer

A programming system is described which considerably simplifies preparation and running of experiments on PDP-8 computers.     

Rapid serial visual presentation display on a small screen: reading Chinese while walking

This study examined the effects of presentation unit (word-by-word or single line) and presentation duration [171, 213, 240, and 308 msec. per character (msec./C)] on the comprehension of Chinese rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) displays read from the small screen of a mobile phone in three different contexts (seated, walking on a treadmill, and walking through an outdoor course). 30 native Chinese readers ages 19 to 26 were recruited as participants. Scores on reading comprehension showed that presentation unit and presentation duration significantly affected reading comprehension, and interactions between factors were also significant. When the presentation unit was word-by-word, no significant difference in reading comprehension was observed under different presentation durations. However, when the presentation unit was a single line, reading comprehension deteriorated with the shortest presentation duration of 171 msec./C. With regard to context, participants had a higher mean reading comprehension score in the seated context than in walking contexts, but the difference was not significant.     

The effects of acoustic similarity on memory in children: A comparison between visual and auditory presentation

Children from 4 to 10 years old were presented with a serial recall task with pictures of common objects which had acoustically similar or dissimilar names, or with the spoken names of the pictures. Children of all ages showed consistently better recall of the pictures with dissimilar names. It is concluded, in contrast to some earlier studies, that children as young as 4 years are able to utilize a speech code as a means of memorizing pictures. With auditory presentation as in previous studies acoustic similarity had progressively more effect on recall with increasing age. The implications of these finding for current theories of short-term memory and its development are discussed.     

Effect of visual field presentation on action planning (estimating reach) in children

In this article, the authors examined the effects of target information presented in different visual fields (lower, upper, central) on estimates of reach via use of motor imagery in children (5-11 years old) and young adults. Results indicated an advantage for estimating reach movements for targets placed in lower visual field (LoVF), with all groups having greater difficulty in the upper visual field (UpVF) condition, especially 5- and 7-year-olds. Complementing these results was an overall age-related increase in accuracy. Based in part on the equivalence hypothesis suggesting that motor imagery and motor planning and execution are similar, the findings support previous work of executed behaviors showing that there is a LoVF bias for motor skill actions of the hand. Given that previous research hints that the UpVF may be bias for visuospatial (perceptual) qualities, research in that area and its association with visuomotor processing (LoVF) should be considered.     

Rapid resumption of interrupted visual search. New insights on the interaction between vision and memory

A modified visual search task demonstrates that humans are very good at resuming a search after it has been momentarily interrupted. This is shown by exceptionally rapid response time to a display that reappears after a brief interruption, even when an entirely different visual display is seen during the interruption and two different visual searches are performed simultaneously. This rapid resumption depends on the stability of the visual scene and is not due to display or response anticipations. These results are consistent with the existence of an iterative hypothesis-testing mechanism that compares information stored in short-term memory (the perceptual hypothesis) with information about the display (the sensory pattern). In this view, rapid resumption occurs because a hypothesis based on a previous glance of the scene can be tested very rapidly in a subsequent glance, given that the initial hypothesis-generation step has already been performed.     

Habituation to irrelevant speech: effects on a visual short-term memory task

The Baddeley and Hitch (1974) formulation of short-term or working memory embodied a phonological store within the articulatory loop component of the model. Later formulations specifically postulated an acoustic filter that endowed only speech-like stimuli with obligatory access to this phonological store. This paper presents evidence that this phonological store may have two filters, one of which is subject to habituation and can therefore attenuate the entry of irrelevant speech, thus undermining the obligatory access assumption of the model. An experiment is reported in which subjects were presented with a habituation period comprising 20 min of irrelevant speech--speech to be ignored by the subject--before a test phase in which a visually presented serial recall task with concurrent irrelevant speech was performed. The effect of irrelevant speech, which impairs performance on the primary task when there is no habituation phase, is reduced markedly in those conditions where the speech used in the habituation phase is the same as that used in the test phase, if the irrelevant speech is in a language different from that presented during the subsequent trials or if the habituator is a hummed version of the irrelevant speech passage. When a nonspeech sound (pink noise) is used in the habituation phase, a large irrelevant speech effect is found in the test phase. Morris, Quayle, and Jones (1989) found that humming did not produce an irrelevant speech effect, which suggests that the first filter is permeable to humming but that the second filter is not.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

(Pea)nuts and bolts of visual narrative: structure and meaning in sequential image comprehension

Just as syntax differentiates coherent sentences from scrambled word strings, the comprehension of sequential images must also use a cognitive system to distinguish coherent narrative sequences from random strings of images. We conducted experiments analogous to two classic studies of language processing to examine the contributions of narrative structure and semantic relatedness to processing sequential images. We compared four types of comic strips: (1) Normal sequences with both structure and meaning, (2) Semantic Only sequences (in which the panels were related to a common semantic theme, but had no narrative structure), (3) Structural Only sequences (narrative structure but no semantic relatedness), and (4) Scrambled sequences of randomly-ordered panels. In Experiment 1, participants monitored for target panels in sequences presented panel-by-panel. Reaction times were slowest to panels in Scrambled sequences, intermediate in both Structural Only and Semantic Only sequences, and fastest in Normal sequences. This suggests that both semantic relatedness and narrative structure offer advantages to processing. Experiment 2 measured ERPs to all panels across the whole sequence. The N300/N400 was largest to panels in both the Scrambled and Structural Only sequences, intermediate in Semantic Only sequences and smallest in the Normal sequences. This implies that a combination of narrative structure and semantic relatedness can facilitate semantic processing of upcoming panels (as reflected by the N300/N400). Also, panels in the Scrambled sequences evoked a larger left-lateralized anterior negativity than panels in the Structural Only sequences. This localized effect was distinct from the N300/N400, and appeared despite the fact that these two sequence types were matched on local semantic relatedness between individual panels. These findings suggest that sequential image comprehension uses a narrative structure that may be independent of semantic relatedness. Altogether, we argue that the comprehension of visual narrative is guided by an interaction between structure and meaning.     

Probing Proctor's priming principle: the effect of simultaneous and sequential presentation on same-different judgments

Three explanations (internal noise, priming, relative frequency) of the fast-same effect were examined. The internal-noise principle, which predicts more errors as well as faster correct judgments on same pairs, was consistently confirmed even with sequential presentation. More elusive was priming, that is, the facilitation of encoding from letter repetition with sequential presentation. Priming was inhibited by the presence of intertrial letter repetition. The error data indicated that priming involves an increased efficiency in encoding (d'), as Proctor claimed, rather than a criterion shift (beta), as Krueger and Shapiro claimed. An alternative to the priming explanation, based on the greater susceptibility of simultaneous presentation to analytical processing, was tested and disconfirmed. Stimulus-set size did not affect the speed advantage for same pairs, thus disconfirming the relative-frequency explanation, according to which same judgments are faster because typically there are fewer unique same than different pairs.     

Testing visual short-term memory of pigeons (Columba livia) and a rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) with a location change detection task

Change detection is commonly used to assess capacity (number of objects) of human visual short-term memory (VSTM). Comparisons with the performance of non-human animals completing similar tasks have shown similarities and differences in object-based VSTM, which is only one aspect (“what”) of memory. Another important aspect of memory, which has received less attention, is spatial short-term memory for “where” an object is in space. In this article, we show for the first time that a monkey and pigeons can be accurately trained to identify location changes, much as humans do, in change detection tasks similar to those used to test object capacity of VSTM. The subject’s task was to identify (touch/peck) an item that changed location across a brief delay. Both the monkey and pigeons showed transfer to delays longer than the training delay, to greater and smaller distance changes than in training, and to novel colors. These results are the first to demonstrate location-change detection in any non-human species and encourage comparative investigations into the nature of spatial and visual short-term memory.     

Conceptual masking: the effects of subsequent visual events on memory for pictures

Three experiments studied the effects of voluntary and involuntary focus of attention on recognition memory for pictures. Experiments 1 and 3 tested the conceptual-masking hypothesis, which holds that a visual event will automatically disrupt processing of a previously glimpsed picture if that event is new and meaningful. Memory for 112-ms pictures was tested under conditions where the to-be-ignored 1.5-s interstimulus interval contained a blank field; a repeating picture; a new picture; a new, nonsense picture; or a new, inverted picture each time. The blank field, repeating picture, and new, nonsense picture did not disrupt memory as much as a new, meaningful picture, supporting the conceptual-masking hypothesis. Experiment 2 studied voluntary attentional control of encoding by instructing subjects to focus attention on the brief pictures, all pictures, or the long pictures in a sequence. Recognition memory for pictures of both durations showed a striking ability of observers to process pictures selectively. The possible role of these effects in visual scanning are discussed.     

Collective memory: a perspective from (experimental) clinical psychology

This paper considers the concept of collective memory from an experimental clinical psychology perspective. Exploration of the term collective reveals a broad distinction between literatures that view collective memories as a property of groups (collectivistic memory) and those that regard these memories as a property of individuals who are, to a greater or lesser extent, an integral part of their social environment (social memory). First, we argue that the understanding of collectivistic memory phenomena may benefit from drawing parallels with current psychological models such as the self-memory system theory of individualistic autobiographical memory. Second, we suggest that the social memory literature may inform the study of trauma-related disorders. We argue that a factual focus induced by collaborative remembering may be beneficial to natural recovery in the immediate aftermath of trauma, and propose that shared remembering techniques may provide a useful addition to the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.     

Temporal characteristics of the effects of visual pattern redundancy on encoding and storage processes: evidence from rapid serial visual presentation

Pattern redundancy is a key concept for representing the amount of internal mental load (encoding efficiency) needed for pattern perception/recognition. The present study investigated how pattern redundancy influences encoding and memory processes in the visual system using a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm. With RSVP, it is well known that participants often fail to detect repetitions of words (repetition blindness, RB). We used this phenomenon as an index of the encoding and storage of visual patterns. In three experiments, we presented patterns with higher and lower redundancy, as defined by Garner’s equivalent set size (ESS). The results showed that RB occurred more frequently for higher redundancy patterns when the temporal distance between the targets was less than 500 ms; this tendency was reversed with longer temporal distances of over 500 ms. Our results suggest that pattern redundancy modulates both the early encoding and subsequent memory processes of a representation.     

Memory on the beach: an Australian memory (and hypnosis) laboratory

The memory (and hypnosis) lab at the University of New South Wales investigates a broad range of memory topics. We try to find innovative methods from cognitive and clinical psychology to address theoretical and empirical questions about memory. We aso use hypnosis as one major methodological tool in our investigations of memory (as well as other cognitive processes). In this paper, we review the projects currently underway in our memory (and hypnosis) lab.     

Rapid visual learning in the rat: Effects at the 5-HT 1a receptor subtype

The 5-hydroxytryptamine 1a (5-HT 1a ) receptor agonist 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino) tetralin (8-OH-DPAT; 0.15 mg/kg) impaired rats' rapid visual learning on a computerized maze. This treatment also increased decision time (DT) but the learning impairment was not necessarily a side-effect of slower responding because, in this task, responses made at long DT are more accurate than those at short DT. The selective 5-HT 1a receptor antagonist WAY-100635 (0.3 mg/kg) was itself without effect on accuracy, but was effective in reversing effects of 8-OH-DPAT (on both accuracy and DT). Within problems (i.e., over the 40-60 trials of a single discrimination), performance was reduced by treatment with 8-OH-DPAT at all stages of learning. We conclude that this effect is mediated through the 5-HT 1a receptor site (rather than through some other serotonergic receptor site or non-specific mechanism) as it was reversible by treatment with WAY-100635. Although it could still arise from behaviourally non-specific effects, the performance deficit finds its best account in terms of the psychological processes necessary to visual learning. Its reversal with WAY-100635 offers support to the hypothesis that 5-HT 1a receptor antagonists could improve cognitive function, under conditions of pre-existing impairment due to overactive serotonergic inhibition, as is thought to occur in Alzheimer's disease.     

Receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) in recognition memory: a review

Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis is being used increasingly to examine the memory processes underlying recognition memory. The authors discuss the methodological issues involved in conducting and analyzing ROC results, describe the various models that have been developed to account for these results, review the behavioral empirical literature, and assess the models in light of those results. The empirical literature includes studies of item recognition, relational recognition (e.g., source and associative tests), as well as exclusion and remember-know tasks. Nine empirical regularities are described, and a number of unresolved empirical issues are identified. The results indicate that several common classes of recognition models, such as pure threshold and pure signal detection models, are inadequate to account for recognition memory, whereas several hybrid models that incorporate a signal detection-based process and a threshold recollection or attention process are in better agreement with the results. The results indicate that there are at least 2 functionally distinct component/processes underlying recognition memory. In addition, the ROC results have various implications for how recognition memory performance should be measured.