Memory For Visual Details Research Articles

The effect of survival processing on memory for pictures depends on how memory is tested

ABSTRACT Two experiments investigated the effects of survival processing on memory for pictures of objects. In experiment 1, participants were presented with 32 pictures of common objects and rated them for their relevance to a survival scenario, a moving home scenario, or for pleasantness. In a surprise recall test, participants in the survival condition recalled more of the verbal labels of the objects than participants in the moving and pleasantness conditions. In experiment 2, participants rated 64 pictures of objects in survival, moving home, or pleasantness conditions. Memory for visual detail was assessed using a forced-choice recognition test in which participants had to decide which of two highly similar pictures was the one they rated at study. In contrast to the results of experiment 1, correct recognition scores were highest in the pleasantness condition and lowest in the survival condition. This pattern suggests that survival processing enhances memory for objects but not for precise visual detail. The findings are consistent with the view that rating objects for their survival value directs attention to the potential uses of the objects. They also emphasise the importance of the match between encoding and retrieval processes in the survival processing paradigm.

Judgments of learning reactively facilitate visual memory by enhancing learning engagement.

Recent studies have found that making judgments of learning (JOLs) for verbal materials changes memory itself, a form of reactivity effect on memory. The current study explores the reactivity effect on visual (image) memory and tests the potential role of enhanced learning engagement in this effect. Experiment 1 employed object image pairs as stimuli and observed a positive reactivity effect on memory for visual details. Experiment 2 conceptually replicated this positive reactivity effect using pairs of scene images. Experiment 3 introduced mind wandering (MW) probes to measure participants' attentional state (learning engagement) and observed that making JOLs significantly reduced MW. More importantly, reduced MW mediated the reactivity effect. Lastly, Experiment 4 found that a manipulation that heightened learning motivation decreased the reactivity effect. Overall, the current study provides the first demonstration of the reactivity effect on visual memory, as well as support for the enhanced learning engagement explanation. Practical implications are discussed.

How visual memory changes with intervening recall.

Being asked to recount a visual memory is common in educational settings, spatial navigation, and crime investigation. Previous studies show that recounting one's memory can benefit subsequent memory, but most of this work either used verbal materials or conflated category memory with memory for visual details. To test whether recounting may introduce visually-specific interference effects, we tested people's memory for photographs of objects, but introduced an intervening phase in which people described their memory. We separated memory for the specific exemplar from memory for the basic-level category. Contrary to recent findings on maps and colours, the intervening retrieval practice did not consistently strengthen exemplar memory of objects. Instead, recounting one's visual memory appeared to introduce interference that sometimes cancelled the benefit of increased retrieval effort. Delaying the final memory test by 24 hr increased the benefit of retrieval practice. These findings suggest that intervening retrieval has multiple effects on visual memory. Instead of being a snapshot, this memory constantly changes with retrieval practice and with time.

As film goes byte: The change from analog to digital film perception.

The digital revolution changed film production in many ways. Until the end of the 20th century, most film professionals and critics preferred celluloid film. However, no previous empirical study compared complete narrative films recorded with analog and digital cinematography. Three short narrative films were produced with an analog and a digital camera attached to a 3D rig in order to control all optical parameters. In postproduction, a third version of a digital film was created to mimic the analog film aesthetics. In a cinema experiment with 356 participants, we tested whether the three film versions are perceived differently. The two capturing technologies produced similar emotional and immersive experiences during digital projection. The study revealed significant differences in the memory of visual details, with higher recall scores for the digitally captured versions. By contrast, preference ratings of very short scenes and the comparison of projection types revealed different results. The mechanical projection of celluloid film produced higher levels of emotional reactions. The results might be of interest to film professionals and audience in general. This study shows that the gap between analog and digital aesthetics has been closed with today’s advanced digital technology.

Differences in auditory imagery self-report predict neural and behavioral outcomes.

Mental imagery has been a topic of psychological inquiry for a number of years, with most researchers focusing on visual imagery. However, auditory imagery has recently been studied as a topic in its own right (see Hubbard, 2010 for a review). Auditory imagery has been implicated in a variety of mental processes, such as reality monitoring (Johnson & Raye, 1981), working memory and rehearsal (Rudner, Ronnberg & Hugdahl, 2005; Tinti, Cornoldi, & Marschark, 1997), and hallucinations (Vitrovic & Biller, 2013), as well as musical processing (Crowder, 1989; Cupchik, Phillips, & Hill, 2001; Halpern, 1988a, 1988b). The of hearing something in one's head is a phenomenologically strong one, particularly for music (Bailes, 2007) and is accompanied by identifiable changes in cerebral blood flow (Halpern & Zatorre, 1999; Zvyagintsev et al., 2013) as well as neural electrical signal (Schaefer, Vlek, & Desain, 2011).One aspect common to many of these studies is that performance is usually averaged over all the participants in a study. Sometimes group differences, particularly with regard to musical training, are examined. For instance, Aleman, Nieuwenstein, Bocker, and de Haan (2000b) found that musicians were superior to nonmusicians in both musical and nonmusical auditory imagery tasks, but not in a visual imagery task. However, individual differences in auditory imagery at a finer level have not typically been addressed.In contrast, individual differences in visual imagery have been studied extensively, most commonly by self-report measures such as the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ; Marks, 1973). This questionnaire is designed to elicit self-report measures of visual imagery vividness, and has been used in hundreds of studies either probing differences in reported imagery ability for different participant groups or assessing the predictive value of self-reported imagery for more objective tasks presumed to require imagery. McKelvie (1995) reviewed both reliability and validity of the VVIQ in a large meta-analysis. Reliability as measured by internal consistency was quite good. Predictive validity, on the other hand, seems to vary by type of task. As examples, VVIQ scores predict reasonably well performance on tasks such as memory for visual detail, but not performance on mental rotation tasks. Kozhevnikov, Kozhevnikov, Yu, and Blazhenkova (2013) link vividness to one aspect of visual imagery skill called object visualization; this predicts artistic creativity-in contrast to spatial visualization, which predicts scientific creativity.Similar questions about individual variability are of potential interest to auditory imagery researchers. For instance, Aleman, Nieuwenstein, Bocker, and de Haan (2000a) compared the imagery abilities of nonpsychotic individuals who report occasional verbal hallucinations to those of nonhallucinators. Hallucinators reported more vivid visual imagery on the VVIQ than nonhallucinators. Barrett (1993) found a similar result using the visual vividness subscale of Betts' (1909) Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery or QMI (see more below). On the other hand, both studies reported that the two groups did not differ on self-reported vividness of auditory imagery using the auditory subscale of the QMI.Despite this interest in documenting individual differences in auditory imagery, scales for capturing this ability have been slow to develop. An early attempt to index individual differences was Betts' (1909) QMI, which assesses imagery in seven sensory modalities, including audition. The QMI presents people with written descriptions, using visual, auditory, or other sensory detail, and asks them to rate the vividness of their mental images of certain aspects of the descriptions. Participants use a 7-point rating scale for vividness and clarity, ranging from perfectly clear and vivid as the actual experience to no image present at all. …

Contextual associations facilitate long-term memory of visual details in barely seen pictures

Contextual associations facilitate long-term memory of visual details in barely seen pictures

Contextual associations facilitate long-term memory of visual details in barely seen pictures

Contextual associations facilitate long-term memory of visual details in barely seen pictures

How Negative Emotion Enhances the Visual Specificity of a Memory

Some studies have suggested that emotion primarily increases memory for "gist," and does not enhance memory for detail. There are, however, some instances in which negative objects (e.g., snake, grenade) are remembered with more visual detail than neutral objects (e.g., barometer, blender). In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined the encoding processes that lead a person to remember the exact visual details of negative and neutral objects, and to remember which of two decisions were made about the objects (a size decision or an animacy decision). The enhancement in memory for a negative item's visual details appeared to result from enhanced visual processing: The right fusiform gyrus, a region known to be critical for processing exemplar-specific details, showed a greater extent and magnitude of activity during the successful encoding of negative objects. Activity in the right amygdala also corresponded with memory for visual detail, although it did not relate to memory for the task performed with the item. These data provide strong evidence that engagement of some amygdalar regions can correspond with enhanced memory for certain types of details, but does not ensure successful encoding of all contextual details.

Effects of Emotion on Memory Specificity in Young and Older Adults

To examine how emotional content affects the amount of visual detail remembered, we had young and older adults study neutral, negative, and positive objects. At retrieval, they distinguished same (identical) from similar (same verbal label, different visual details) and new (nonstudied) objects. A same response to a same item indicated memory for visual details (specific recognition), whereas a same or similar response to a same or similar item signified memory for the general sort of object (general recognition). Both age groups showed enhanced specific recognition for negative (not positive) objects. Young adults' general recognition advantage also was restricted to negative objects, whereas older adults showed enhanced general recognition for positive and negative objects. Negative (not positive) content enhanced the visual specificity of memory in both ages, but positive content conferred a general memory advantage only for older adults.

The amygdala's role in long-term declarative memory for gist and detail.

In humans, the emotional nature of stimuli appears to have a complex influence on long-term declarative memory for those stimuli: Whereas emotion enhances memory for gist, it may suppress memory for detail. On the basis of prior studies, the authors hypothesized that the amygdala helps mediate the above 2 effects. Long-term memory for gist and for visual detail of aversive and neutral scenes was assessed in 20 subjects with unilateral amygdala damage and 1 rare subject with bilateral amygdala damage. Comparisons with 2 control groups (15 brain-damaged and 47 healthy) provided evidence that bilateral, but not unilateral, damage to the amygdala results in poorer memory for gist but superior memory for visual details. The pattern of findings provides preliminary support for the idea that the amygdala may help filter the encoding of relevant information from stimuli that signal threat or danger.

Effects of encoding the perceptual features of pictures on memory.

Four experiments investigated whether manipulations of type of encoding affects the likelihood of remembering pictures' visual details and their names. Using an incidental learning procedures, subjects were led to make judgments about pictures' colors, spatial orientations, or appropriateness in a scene. The results indicate that the nature of the memory test influences the effectiveness of different encoding conditions. Recall and recognition of pictures' names were best after subjects judged scene encodings, second best after they judged orientation, and poorest after they judged color. However, the results for the recognition of pictures' visual details were quite different. Analyses of d' suggested that type of encoding task had no effect on memory for visual details, whereas analysis of Pr (hit rate minus false-alarm rate) suggested that memory for visual details was impaired by conceptual encoding (judging the appropriateness of a picture in a scene). The results of one experiment demonstrated that these findings were not produced by variation in distinctiveness of the encoding questions. This pattern of findings implies that conceptual encoding facilitates retention of the names of the pictures at the cost of some loss in the ability to retain specific visual details.

Role of memory in divergent thinking.

Tests involving word span, memory for verbal details, memory for visual details, and the Minnesota Tests of Creative Thinking (MTCT) were administered to 63 Ss in grades 4, 5, and 6. IQs were obtained from school records. Only 1 of 8 correlations between IQ and divergent thinking (DT) scores was significant, but 11 of 48 correlations between memory and DT were significant. In stepwise multiple correlation of the memory scores on each DT score, 17 of 19 predictor variables in reduced sets were memory scores. Canonical correlation of the memory and the DT scores yielded an R of .61. Results were interpreted to support the hypothesis that certain memory abilities may play important roles in DT.