Objects influence the shape of remembered views: examining global and local aspects of boundary extension.

Abstract

Boundary extension is a constructive memory error for views of scenes in which viewx tendto be remembered as more spatially expansive than they appeared. In seven experiments xwe examinedwhether local differences in boundary extension within views might exist by presenting par ticipants ith overhead views of single, elongated objects or object pairs on textured ground surfaces i:n whichobjects were oriented either vertically or horizontally. Memory for views' spatial expanse xwas testedwith either a view-recognition test or a border-adjustment test in which participants could ad just thespatial expanse of a test view using the computer's mouse. The border-adjustment test was uused tossess local boundary extension (primarily); the view-recognition test was used to assess paparticipants'emories for the overall spatial expanse of views (ie global boundary extension). Across exexperiments,n the border-adjustment tests specifically, participants showed more spatial expanse along the obobject'songer axis, in some cases restricting the view along the object's shorter axis. In addition, the rerecognition-t data revealed greater boundary extension for views with vertically oriented objects than for x.iviewsth horizontally oriented objects. Taken together, the results suggest that objects in scene x iviews canfect both local and global aspects of memory for spatial expanse of scene views.