Scene Memory Research Articles

The build up of scene memory across eye movements

The build up of scene memory across eye movements

Neural correlates of recognition memory for emotional faces and scenes

We examined the influence of emotional valence and type of item to be remembered on brain activity during recognition, using faces and scenes. We used multivariate analyses of event-related fMRI data to identify whole-brain patterns, or networks of activity. Participants demonstrated better recognition for scenes vs faces and for negative vs neutral and positive items. Activity was increased in extrastriate cortex and inferior frontal gyri for emotional scenes, relative to neutral scenes and all face types. Increased activity in these regions also was seen for negative faces relative to positive faces. Correct recognition of negative faces and scenes (hits vs correct rejections) was associated with increased activity in amygdala, hippocampus, extrastriate, frontal and parietal cortices. Activity specific to correctly recognized emotional faces, but not scenes, was found in sensorimotor areas and rostral prefrontal cortex. These results suggest that emotional valence and type of visual stimulus both modulate brain activity at recognition, and influence multiple networks mediating visual, memory and emotion processing. The contextual information in emotional scenes may facilitate memory via additional visual processing, whereas memory for emotional faces may rely more on cognitive control mediated by rostrolateral prefrontal regions.

The Attentional Boost Effect: Transient increases in attention to one task enhance performance in a second task

Recent work on event perception suggests that perceptual processing increases when events change. An important question is how such changes influence the way other information is processed, particularly during dual-task performance. In this study, participants monitored a long series of distractor items for an occasional target as they simultaneously encoded unrelated background scenes. The appearance of an occasional target could have two opposite effects on the secondary task: It could draw attention away from the second task, or, as a change in the ongoing event, it could improve secondary task performance. Results were consistent with the second possibility. Memory for scenes presented simultaneously with the targets was better than memory for scenes that preceded or followed the targets. This effect was observed when the primary detection task involved visual feature oddball detection, auditory oddball detection, and visual color-shape conjunction detection. It was eliminated when the detection task was omitted, and when it required an arbitrary response mapping. The appearance of occasional, task-relevant events appears to trigger a temporal orienting response that facilitates processing of concurrently attended information (Attentional Boost Effect).

Accumulating and Remembering the Details of Neutral and Emotional Natural Scenes

In contrast to our rich sensory experience with complex scenes in everyday life, the capacity of visual working memory is thought to be quite limited. Here our memory has been examined for the details of naturalistic scenes as a function of display duration, emotional valence of the scene, and delay before test. Individual differences in working memory and long-term memory for pictorial scenes were examined in experiment 1. The accumulation of memory for emotional scenes and the retention of these details in long-term memory were investigated in experiment 2. Although there were large individual differences in performance, memory for scene details generally exceeded the traditional working memory limit within a few seconds. Information about positive scenes was learned most quickly, while negative scenes showed the worst memory for details. The overall pattern of results was consistent with the idea that both short-term and long-term representations are mixed together in a medium-term 'online' memory for scenes.

Effects of aging on neural connectivity underlying selective memory for emotional scenes

Event Abstract Back to Event Effects of aging on neural connectivity underlying selective memory for emotional scenes E. A. Kensinger1, 2 and J. D. Waring1* 1 Boston College, Department of Psychology, United States 2 Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, United States After viewing emotionally arousing visual scenes, participants often remember the emotional items within scenes but not the visual context in which they occurred—a tradeoff effect. We examined young and older adults’ encoding-stage effective connectivity predicting a trade-off in memory for high arousal scenes compared to remembering both the item and its background. In an event-related fMRI study, participants viewed scenes containing either high arousal or neutral items within neutral backgrounds. Outside the scanner, participants completed a memory test for items and backgrounds, presented independently and intermixed. We modeled the effective connectivity among regions responding to scene viewing (irrespective of emotional content or subsequent memory) and had theoretical relevance to emotion processing. Results for older adults revealed that the amygdala was in synergy with other limbic and prefrontal regions regardless of whether a trade-off occurred or both the emotional item and its background were remembered. In contrast, young adults showed synergy between amygdala and other regions only when both components would be remembered; the amygdala was out of sync with frontal and limbic regions when a trade-off would occur. These results suggest that the trade-off in young and older adults cannot be explained by the same underlying connectivity during encoding. Conference: The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes, Toronto, Canada, 22 Mar - 26 Mar, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Aging Citation: Kensinger EA and Waring JD (2010). Effects of aging on neural connectivity underlying selective memory for emotional scenes. Conference Abstract: The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.14.00135 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 30 Jun 2010; Published Online: 30 Jun 2010. * Correspondence: J. D Waring, Boston College, Department of Psychology, Chestnut Hill, MA, United States, waringj@bc.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers E. A Kensinger J. D Waring Google E. A Kensinger J. D Waring Google Scholar E. A Kensinger J. D Waring PubMed E. A Kensinger J. D Waring Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

A prospective investigation of the vulnerability of memory for positive and negative emotional scenes to the misinformation effect.

Cette etude a examine (prospectivement) l'impact du contenu emotionnel de scenes visuelles sur la precision de la memoire et la susceptibilite a l'information trompeuse au fil du temps. Apres avoir regarde une image photographique tres positive et une autre tres negative, la moitie des participants (N = 80) a recu de l'information trompeuse au sujet de celles-ci. Ensuite, ces derniers ont repondu a des questions portant sur les details des images. Une semaine ou un mois plus tard, on a pose aux participants, qui ne s'y attendaient pas, des questions sur les images. Dans l'ensemble, les souvenirs des participants ayant recu de l'information trompeuse etaient de beaucoup moins exacts que ceux des autres, une tendance qui s'est maintenue dans les suivis, une semaine et un mois plus tard. Toutefois, pour tous, l'exactitude des souvenirs a diminue avec le temps. Par rapport aux images positives, les negatives ont ete associees a une plus grande susceptibilite aux faux souvenirs en ce qui a trait a un important detail trompeur donne aux deux seances. Ainsi, comparativement a une emotion positive, une emotion negative augmente specifiquement la suggestibilite en presence d'une information trompeuse majeure.

Scene complexity: Influence on perception, memory, and development in the medial temporal lobe

Regions in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) are involved in memory formation for scenes in both children and adults. The development in children and adolescents of successful memory encoding for scenes has been associated with increased activation in PFC, but not MTL, regions. However, evidence suggests that a functional subregion of the MTL that supports scene perception, located in the parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), goes through a prolonged maturation process. Here we tested the hypothesis that maturation of scene perception supports the development of memory for complex scenes. Scenes were characterized by their levels of complexity defined by the number of unique object categories depicted in the scene. Recognition memory improved with age, in participants ages 8–24, for high-, but not low-, complexity scenes. High-complexity compared to low-complexity scenes activated a network of regions including the posterior PHG. The difference in activations for high- versus low-complexity scenes increased with age in the right posterior PHG. Finally, activations in right posterior PHG were associated with age-related increases in successful memory formation for high-, but not low-, complexity scenes. These results suggest that functional maturation of the right posterior PHG plays a critical role in the development of enduring long-term recollection for high-complexity scenes.

Recollection and confidence in two-alternative forced choice episodic recognition

We used quantitative modeling of remember–know responses ( Tulving, 1985) to investigate the processes underlying recognition memory for faces in the choice-similarity paradigm ( Tulving, 1981). Similarity between recognition test choices produces opposite effects on confidence and accuracy in this paradigm. We extended existing models of this double dissociation to account for remember–know responses, by adding a variable recollection criterion to Clark’s (1997) single-process model and by adding graded recollection strength to Dobbins, Kroll, and Liu’s (1998) dual-process model. Both models provided an accurate and comprehensive account of objective and subjective judgments in an experiment we conducted on memory for faces, and of data from Dobbins et al. on memory for natural scenes. Model selection techniques were used to refine these accounts, providing insight into the psychological processes proposed by each approach and into their implications for the relationship between recollection and confidence in two-alternative forced choice recognition.

Hormone therapy does not modify emotion-induced brain activity in older women

Sex hormones have actions in brain regions important for emotion, including the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. Previous studies have shown that cyclic sex hormones and hormone therapy after menopause modify responses to emotional events. Thus, this study examined whether hormone therapy modified emotion-induced brain activity in older women. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), behavioral ratings (valence and arousal), and recognition memory were used to assess responses to emotionally laden scenes in older women currently using hormone therapy (HT) and women not currently using hormone therapy (NONE). We hypothesized that hormones would affect the amount or persistence of emotion-induced brain activity in the amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). However, hormone therapy did not affect brain activity with the exception that NONE women showed a modest increase over time in amygdala activity to positive scenes. Hormone therapy did not affect behavioral ratings or memory for emotional scenes. The results were similar when women were regrouped based on whether they had ever used hormone therapy versus had never used hormone therapy. These results suggest that hormone therapy does not modify emotion-induced brain activity, or its persistence, in older women.

Sleep deprivation and its effects on object-selective attention

Sleep deprivation (SD) affects attention but it is an open question as to whether all subtypes of attention are similarly affected. We investigated the effects of 24 h of total SD on object-selective attention. 26 healthy, young adults viewed quartets of alternating faces or place scenes and performed selective judgments on faces only, scenes only or both faces and scenes. Volunteers underwent fMRI following a normal night of sleep and again following approximately 24 h of total sleep deprivation in a counterbalanced fashion. Sleep deprivation resulted in slower and less accurate picture classification as well as poorer recognition memory for scenes. Attention strongly modulated activation in the Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA). Task-related activation in the fronto-parietal cortex and PPA was reduced in SD, but the relative modulation of PPA activation by attention was preserved. Psychophysiological interaction between the left intra-parietal sulcus and the PPA that was clearly present after a normal night of sleep was reduced below threshold following SD suggesting that PPI may be a more sensitive method of detecting change in selective attention. Sleep deprivation may affect object-selective attention in addition to exerting a task-independent deficit in attention.

Spatial asymmetries in viewing and remembering scenes: Consequences of an attentional bias?

Given a single fixation, memory for scenes containing salient objects near both the left and right view boundaries exhibited a rightward bias in boundary extension (Experiment 1). On each trial, a 500-msec picture and 2.5-sec mask were followed by a boundary adjustment task. Observers extended boundaries 5% more on the right than on the left. Might this reflect an asymmetric distribution of attention? In Experiments 2A and 2B, free viewing of pictures revealed that first saccades were more often leftward (62%) than rightward (38%). In Experiment 3, 500-msec pictures were interspersed with 2.5-sec masks. A subsequent object recognition memory test revealed better memory for left-side objects. Scenes were always mirror reversed for half the observers, thus ruling out idiosyncratic scene compositions as the cause of these asymmetries. Results suggest an unexpected leftward bias of attention that selectively enhanced the representations, causing a smaller boundary extension error and better object memory on the views' left sides.

Functional Connectivity with the Parahippocampal Gyrus during Successful Scene Memory Formation using fMRI and PsychoPhysiological Interaction Analysis

Functional Connectivity with the Parahippocampal Gyrus during Successful Scene Memory Formation using fMRI and PsychoPhysiological Interaction Analysis

Short-term memory for pictures seen once or twice

The present study is concerned with the effects of exposure time, repetition, spacing and lag on old/new recognition memory for generic visual scenes presented in a RSVP paradigm. Early memory studies with verbal material found that knowledge of total exposure time at study is sufficient to accurately predict memory performance at test (the Total Time Hypothesis), irrespective of number of repetitions, spacing or lag. However, other studies have disputed such simple dependence of memory strength on total study time, demonstrating super-additive facilitatory effects of spacing and lag, as well as inhibitory effects, such as the Ranschburg effect, Repetition Blindness and the Attentional Blink. In the experimental conditions of the present study we find no evidence of either facilitatory or inhibitory effects: recognition memory for pictures in RSVP supports the Total Time Hypothesis. The data are consistent with an Unequal-Variance Signal Detection Theory model of memory that assumes the average strength and the variance of the familiarity of pictures both increase with total study time. The main conclusion is that the growth of visual scene familiarity with temporal exposure and repetition is a stochastically independent process.

Auditory recognition memory is inferior to visual recognition memory

Visual memory for scenes is surprisingly robust. We wished to examine whether an analogous ability exists in the auditory domain. Participants listened to a variety of sound clips and were tested on their ability to distinguish old from new clips. Stimuli ranged from complex auditory scenes (e.g., talking in a pool hall) to isolated auditory objects (e.g., a dog barking) to music. In some conditions, additional information was provided to help participants with encoding. In every situation, however, auditory memory proved to be systematically inferior to visual memory. This suggests that there exists either a fundamental difference between auditory and visual stimuli, or, more plausibly, an asymmetry between auditory and visual processing.

Effects of ageing on associative memory for related and unrelated pictures

Associative memory deficits are pervasive with age. Memory for complex pictures, however, also seems to require the association of several scene elements into one representation, but picture memory is often age-invariant. We speculated that the natural relationships contained in pictures may explain this distinction and that memory for scenes with unusual novel relationships would be affected with ageing. In three experiments, we found that, counter to our predictions, the relatedness of scene elements exerted little influence on picture memory and did not differentially affect older compared to younger adults. These data suggest that the semantically rich associations contained in pictures need not rely on prior knowledge and experiences in order to support age-invariant picture memory. Our results indicate that associative memory for complex pictures may differ from memory for interitem associations, which may be more affected by ageing.

Two forms of scene memory guide visual search: Memory for scene context and memory for the binding of target object to scene location

The role of scene memory in visual search was investigated in a preview-search task. Participants saw a preview of a real-world scene prior to searching through that scene for a target object. Compared with a no preview baseline, search was facilitated following a preview scene that did not contain the ultimate target object, indicating that memory for the general context and layout of a scene exemplar facilitates later search. In addition, search was more efficient when the preview scene contained the ultimate target object than when it did not, demonstrating that memory for the specific binding of objects to locations facilitates later search. Both forms of memory were explicitly available for participant report.

Transsaccadic Scene Memory Revisited: A 'Theory of Visual Attention (TVA)' Based Approach to Recognition Memory and Confidence for Objects in Naturalistic Scenes.

The study presented here introduces a new approach to the investigation of transsaccadic memory for objects in naturalistic scenes. Participants were tested with a whole-report task from which — based on the theory of visual attention (TVA) - processing efficiency parameters were derived, namely visual short-term memory storage capacity and visual processing speed. By combining these processing efficiency parameters with transsaccadic memory data from a previous study, we were able to take a closer look at the contribution of visual short-term memory capacity and processing speed to the establishment of visual long-term memory representations during scene viewing. Results indicate that especially the VSTM storage capacity plays a major role in the generation of transsaccadic visual representations of naturalistic scenes.

The role of color in visual search in real-world scenes: Evidence from contextual cuing

Because the importance of color in visual tasks such as object identification and scene memory has been debated, we sought to determine whether color is used to guide visual search in contextual cuing with real-world scenes. In Experiment 1, participants searched for targets in repeated scenes that were shown in one of three conditions: natural colors, unnatural colors that remained consistent across repetitions, and unnatural colors that changed on every repetition. We found that the pattern of learning was the same in all three conditions. In Experiment 2, we did a transfer test in which the repeating scenes were shown in consistent colors that suddenly changed on the last block of the experiment. The color change had no effect on search times, relative to a condition in which the colors did not change. In Experiments 3 and 4, we replicated Experiments 1 and 2, using scenes from a color-diagnostic category of scenes, and obtained similar results. We conclude that color is not used to guide visual search in real-world contextual cuing, a finding that constrains the role of color in scene identification and recognition processes.

Sleep Preferentially Enhances Memory for Emotional Components of Scenes

Central aspects of emotional experiences are often well remembered at the expense of background details. Previous studies of such memory trade-offs have focused on memory after brief delays, but little is known about how these components of emotional memories change over time. We investigated the evolution of memory for negative scenes across 30 min, 12 daytime hours spent awake, and 12 nighttime hours including sleep. After 30 min, negative objects were well remembered at the expense of information about their backgrounds. Time spent awake led to forgetting of the entire negative scene, with memories of objects and their backgrounds decaying at similar rates. Sleep, in contrast, led to a preservation of memories of negative objects, but not their backgrounds, a result suggesting that the two components undergo differential processing during sleep. Memory for a negative scene develops differentially across time delays containing sleep and wake, with sleep selectively consolidating those aspects of memory that are of greatest value to the organism.

Visual short-term memory for natural scenes: Effects of eccentricity

It is well established that a range of basic visual acuities and sensitivities decline with retinal eccentricity due in part to a decline in spatial sampling in the retina. However, it is also known that not all peripheral deficits can be explained entirely by such low-level factors, suggesting a specialization of central vision for certain visual tasks. Here, we examine visual short-term memory for natural scenes and ask whether low-level factors can fully account for variations in performance across the visual field. We measure local recognition performance as a function of eccentricity for both coherent and scrambled natural scenes. We find that while spatial coherence substantially increases recognition rates for targets near fixation, the benefit of spatial coherence vanishes in the periphery. These results suggest that low-level factors cannot fully explain the decline in visual short-term memory for natural scenes in the periphery and that mechanisms selective for global configuration are largely confined to the central visual field.