Information In Visual Memory Research Articles

TIPS-pentacene organic field-effect transistor for optoelectronic neuromorphic simulation

Biological learning and memory of visual information are carried out through the regulation of synaptic weight by visual neuron synapses. Replicating the cognitive processes and light-induced adaptability of the human brain holds immense significance for the advancement of artificial intelligence. Here, we propose an organic photoelectric synaptic transistor based on 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene. The device showcases a memory window greater than 20 V and current on/off ratio of 106. Synaptic behavior transition is exhibited from short-term plasticity to long-term plasticity under photoelectric pulse modulation, including paired-pulse facilitation, spike time dependent plasticity, spike number dependent plasticity and optical enhancement/electrical inhibition. In addition, we simulate the learning and adaptation process of the synaptic device after long-term light stimulation, and recognize visual information by perceiving light pulses in different time domains.

A Longitudinal Examination of Alcohol-Related Blackouts as a Predictor of Changes in Learning, Memory, and Executive Function in Adolescents.

IntroductionIn adolescents, the relationship between alcohol-related blackouts (ARBs) and distinct cognitive changes lasting beyond intoxication is unclear. We examined ARBs as a predictor of persistent changes in the development of learning, memory, and executive function in participants from the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study.MethodsDescriptive analyses of the NCANDA sample (N = 831, 50.9% female, 12–21 years at baseline) identified ARB patterns within participants with an ARB history (n = 106). Latent growth curve modeling evaluated ARB-related performance changes on four neuropsychological measures across five years, excluding baseline data to reduce the magnitude of practice effects over time (n = 790). Measures included the Penn Conditional Exclusion Test (PCET), Penn Letter N-back Test (PLBT), Penn Facial Memory Test immediate (PFMTi), and delayed (PFMTd) recognition trials, and the Rey Complex Figure Test copy (RCFTc), immediate recall (RCFTi), and delayed recall (RCFTd) trials. Multivariate models were fit for raw accuracy scores from each measure, with ARB history (i.e., presence of past-year ARBs) as the main independent variable. Age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, assessment site, and alcohol use (i.e., past-year frequency) were included as covariates. Interaction effects between ARB history and alcohol use frequency were tested.ResultsBy year five, 16% of participants had experienced at least one ARB (59% of whom reported > 1 ARB and 57% of whom had an ARB lasting > 1 h). After controlling for demographics and alcohol use, ARB history predicted attenuated PFMTd performance growth at year one. Interaction effects between ARB history and alcohol use frequency predicted attenuated PFMTd performance growth at years one and two. ARB history predicted attenuated RCFTi and RCFTd performance growth by year four, but not PCET or PLBT performance over time. By contrast, greater past-year alcohol use predicted attenuated PFMTi and PFMTd performance growth between years two and four in adolescents without an ARB history.ConclusionWe found that ARBs predict distinct, lasting changes in learning and memory for visual information, with results suggesting that the developing brain is vulnerable to ARBs during adolescence and emerging adulthood.

How Is Building Lego Models Related to Math Skills?

Math is usually taught using a lot of words. But, is this the way the human brain learns math? We studied how math is related to memory, intelligence, and reading in 7-year-old children. We found that memory for visual information (things you can see) and spatial information (where things are located in relationship to each other) is related to math skills more than memory for words and verbal information. Interestingly, previous studies have found that building Lego models (construction play) by following instructions is related to math skills. This study found that the relationship between construction play and math is influenced by memory for visual and spatial information. The results of this study make us wonder if building Lego models could improve the brain processes needed for learning math!

Terms of the debate on the format and structure of visual memory.

Our ability to actively maintain information in visual memory is strikingly limited. There is considerable debate about why this is so. As with many questions in psychology, the debate is framed dichotomously: Is visual working memory limited because it is supported by only a small handful of discrete "slots" into which visual representations are placed, or is it because there is an insufficient supply of a "resource" that is flexibly shared among visual representations? Here, we argue that this dichotomous framing obscures a set of at least eight underlying questions. Separately considering each question reveals a rich hypothesis space that will be useful for building a comprehensive model of visual working memory. The questions regard (1) an upper limit on the number of represented items, (2) the quantization of the memory commodity, (3) the relationship between how many items are stored and how well they are stored, (4) whether the number of stored items completely determines the fidelity of a representation (vs. fidelity being stochastic or variable), (5) the flexibility with which the memory commodity can be assigned or reassigned to items, (6) the format of the memory representation, (7) how working memories are formed, and (8) how memory representations are used to make responses in behavioral tasks. We reframe the debate in terms of these eight underlying questions, placing slot and resource models as poles in a more expansive theoretical space.

A Cognitive Architecture for Visual Memory Identification

Memory is an important process of human behavior. In particular visual memory encode, store, and retrieve acquired knowledge about the environment. The visual memory system involves different kinds of processes, such as sensory input and short-term visual memory. The model presents a first approach for visual memory recognition that supports the three stages mentioned above. The model design is based on neuroscience results. The model consists of nodes. Each node represents a brain area that is involved in the visual memory system. The nodes run in a distributed system and send messages with visual memory information. This document presents only the memory system specifications that support a cognitive architecture for visual object identification. The authors validated the model with two case studies: known and unknown stimulus.

Normative representation of objects and scenes: Evidence from predictable biases in visual perception and memory

Objects and scenes can be viewed at almost any distance, and so can subtend any visual angle. However, we propose that for a given visual stimulus there exists an input size that maximizes visual information needed for a given task. We term this size the “norm”, and present initial evidence suggesting that (1) perception is implicitly sensitive to the norm, and (2) memory for visual information is biased toward this norm. First, observers were presented with a picture of an isolated object (experiment 1a) or a scene (experiment 1b) and were told to adjust the visual angle of the object or the viewing distance of the scene until the image was at the “right place” to see the object or scene. Despite the subjectivity of the task, the selected size for each stimulus was remarkably consistent across observers. Second, the norms from experiment 1 were used in a boundary adjustment task. In the classical boundary extension paradigm, subjects tend to remember pictures of scenes as farther away than they were originally viewed. However, if memory is biased toward a norm point, then a view of an object should show both boundary extension and boundary compression, depending on where it is relative to the norm. Observers were presented with pictures of objects (experiment 2a) or scenes (experiment 2b) taken from different distances and displayed for 5 seconds each. Afterwards, participants adjusted the size of the object or scene so as to match the size viewed at learning. The remembered objects and scenes showed a systematic bias towards the normative size. Finally, using a change detection paradigm, we show that a change towards the norm is harder to detect then a change away from the norm, providing converging evidence that memory is biased toward a perceptual norm.

Memory for images intense enough to draw an administration's attention: Television and the “war on terror”

In the recent United States-led "war on terror," including ongoing engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, news organizations have been accused of showing a negative view of developments on the ground. In particular, news depictions of casualties have brought accusations of anti-Americanism and aiding and abetting the terrorists' cause. In this study, video footage of war from television news stories was manipulated to investigate the effects of negative compelling images on cognitive resource allocation, physiological arousal, and recognition memory. Results of a within-subjects experiment indicate that negatively valenced depictions of casualties and destruction elicit greater attention and physiological arousal than positive and low-intensity images. Recognition memory for visual information in the graphic negative news condition was highest, whereas audio recognition for this condition was lowest. The results suggest that negative, high-intensity video imagery diverts cognitive resources away from the encoding of verbal information in the newscast, positioning visual images and not the spoken narrative as a primary channel of viewer learning.

A cross-modal weapon focus effect: The influence of a weapon's presence on memory for auditory information

To examine whether a weapon's presence impairs witnesses' memory for auditory information (as it impairs memory for visual information), we conducted two experiments in which undergraduates watched one version of a videotape depicting a male target who held either a weapon or a neutral object and conversed with a female character. The semantic content of his remarks was either easy or difficult to comprehend. The weapon's presence did not affect voice identification accuracy or memory for the target's vocal characteristics (e.g., pitch, loudness, speech rate) but did worsen memory for semantic content in the Difficult Comprehension condition. Our results can be explained by multiple resource models of attention, which propose separate resource “pools” for different sensory modalities.

Editorial

Editorial

Visual short-term memory and motor planning

Despite extensive experimental work showing that memory for visual information in prior fixations is limited, the nature and content of the information maintained across fixations, when vision functions in its natural context, is not well determined. To gain insight into what memory representations might be needed to support vision in the natural world, we examined eye and hand movements while subjects made a sandwich and while they copied a toy model in a virtual environment. Patterns of eye-hand coordination and fixation sequences suggest the need for planning and coordinating movements over a period of a few seconds. Since the movement plan is initiated when the eye is in a different position from that when the movement itself is made, the planning must be in a coordinate frame that is independent of eye position. Movement planning thus requires a representation of the spatial structure in a scene that is built up over different fixations.

The influence of verbal encoding on the memory of visual information

The previous research which investigated the effect of verbal encoding on the memory of visual information has yielded contradictory results: facilitation and inhibition of performance by verbal encoding. However, it has not been elucidated why and how these conflicting results were brought about. The main purpose of this study is to show that verbal encoding not only facilitates but also impairs performance by taking task demand and characteristics of visual representations into account. Another purpose is to investigate how verbal encoding would influence the memory of color information, which is irrelevant for the memory task. In Experiment 1, the results showed that verbal encoding could have two opposite effects in the same task. In Experiment 2, the results showed that the effect of verbal encoding on the memory of color would differ from that on the memory of the shapes of pictures.

The representation of nonstructural information in visual memory: evidence from image combination.

Two experiments investigated the differential representation of the figure and ground of a picture in visual short-term and long-term memory. It is known (Hitch, Brandimonte, & Walker, 1995) that subjects find it more difficult to combine mental images of two separately presented pictures in order to identify a novel form when the two pictures are incongruent in color (i.e., when a black-on-white line drawing has to be combined with a white-on-black drawing). In the present experiments, the figures were depicted in solid form to allow color congruity to be varied independently for figure and ground. Results showed a clear impairment in image combination when the to-be-combined figures were incongruent in color (black-on-gray and white-on-gray) but not when their grounds were incongruently colored (gray-on-black and gray-on-white). In this way, image combination was seen to be supported by a representation of the object depicted in the picture rather than by a literal representation of the picture itself (i.e., a pictorial code). In line with previous findings, the same representation was seen to support image combination based on short-term memory (Experiment 1) and long-term memory (Experiment 2), provided that in the latter case verbal recoding was precluded. When verbal recoding was allowed, image combination based on long-term memory was insensitive to color congruity, implying the involvement of a more abstract structural representation.

Attentional limits on the perception and memory of visual information.

Attentional limits on perception and memory were measured by the decline in performance with increasing numbers of objects in a display. Multiple objects were presented to Ss who discriminated visual attributes. In a representative condition, 4 lines were briefly presented followed by a single line in 1 of the same locations. Ss were required to judge if the single line in the 2nd display was longer or shorter than the line in the corresponding location of the 1st display. The length difference threshold was calculated as a function of the number of objects. The difference thresholds doubled when the number of objects was increased from 1 to 4. This effect was generalized in several ways, and nonattentional explanations were ruled out. Further analyses showed that the attentional processes must share information from at least 4 objects and can be described by a simple model.

Attentional limits on the perception and memory of visual information.

Attentional limits on the perception and memory of visual information.

Verbal coding deficits in learning-disabled readers: A multiple stage model

This article reviews some selected literature, drawn from the last 10 years, suggesting that learning-disabled (LD) readers have functionallyindependent visual and verbal coding systems. The review focuses on studies where it has been shown that learning-disabled readers fail to effectively establish visual and verbal coding interconnections, which in turn impairs their episodic memory for visual information. It is hypothesized that this faulty interconnection is manifested by verbal codes failing to adequately provide an “additive” component to enhance the recall of visual information. The article reviews some data supporting this hypothesis, as well as extending the hypothesis by suggesting that a deficient lexical system may contribute to disabled readers' independent coding operations on a picture-naming task. The research is organized within a tentative model which assumes that there are at least three distinct information-processing stages (modality-specific, semantic, and lexical processing) that play an important role in disabled readers' processing of visual information.

Some regularities of memory of visual information

The article deals with the regularities of memory and retention of the visual material. The first experiment is devoted to the immediate recall and recognition of 9 line drawings exposed for 5 seconds at 3x3 matrixes. Thus, it has been established that on the average 3.9 pictures are recalled and 5.8 pictures are recognized from one collection. The recall of the objects depends on their position in the matrix. The majority of the pictures are recalled in the left upper corner. Proceeding from the left to the right and descending from the top to the bottom, the recall becomes lesser. In the second experiment under the same conditions, the complex pictures were exposed and their immediate and 24-hour recalls have been studied. It has turned out that the immediate and the delayed recalls are not essentially different and their average quantities are accordingly 6.3 and 5.9 objects. According to the total results of the group under investigation, it has been determined that the frequency of the recall of objects depends not upon their place in the presented space, but upon the hierarchy of their importance while perceiving the picture. Side by side with the adequate recalls, the most characteristic types of reconstruction are analysed and described. The results of the experiments give evidence as for the role of the schemes which are formed in man's cognition.