Recognition Memory For Pictures Research Articles

Long-term memory for pictures and sentences.

Two experiments were conducted to examine the fan effect in recognition memory for pictures and sentences. Subjects in the first experiment memorized sets of pictures (N= 13) or sentences (N=13) in which the study items comprised concept combinations (e.g., the clock is on the television) that could be unambiguously depicted in each modality. The fan effect, contrasting study items involving unique- and shared-concepts combinations, was observed in the recognition reaction time data for sentences but not for pictures. Subjects in the second experiment (N= 17) memorized sets of pictures and sentences in which, in addition to the unique and shared intramodality conditions used in Experiment 1, subjects memorized items in each modality that shared concepts with items in the alternative modality. Although the fan effect was reduced for sentences in the second experiment, the intramodality results were qualitatively comparable to those obtained in Experiment 1. The results in the intermodality conditions indicated that, although pictorial study items influenced reaction time to sentences with which they shared a concept, the reverse was not the case. The results were thought to be inconsistent with the view that pictures and sentences enjoy a common representational format in long-term memory.

The effects of pretraining on children's recognition memory for pictures.

The effects of pretraining on children's recognition memory for pictures.

Age trends in recognition memory for pictures: The effects of delay and testing procedure

Experiment 1 examined the effects of three delay intervals (0, 24, and 48 h) on recognition memory performance of 5-, 8-, and 11-year-olds and adults using a forced-choice procedure. Results revealed significant drops in performance after 24 h for 5-year-olds and after 48 h for 8-year-olds, with no performance decrement for older age groups. However, observations made during the first experiment raised the possibility that performance in the forced-choice procedure may have been biased, since subjects could infer which item was presented previously from high confidence that the new item had never been presented. Since age differences in use of this inferential process may have exaggerated the performance differences observed with the forced-choice procedure, Experiment 2 employed a single-item yes-no testing procedure to assess age and delay effects on recognition memory. Performance increased with age and decreased with delay, but no differential performance decrement occurred across delay as a function of age. Together, results confirmed earlier studies in demonstrating age invariance in information loss across time.

Preschoolers' picture recognition memory: the pitfalls of knowing how a thing shall be called.

Preschoolers' picture recognition memory: the pitfalls of knowing how a thing shall be called.

Do amnesics adopt inefficient encoding strategies with faces and random shapes?

These experiments compared recognition memory for pictures of faces and random shapes in a group of alcoholic amnesics and matched control subjects. Material was presented either with unguided learning instructions, or with “high”-and “low”-level orienting tasks. Recognition level was equated across groups by varying the retention interval. Measures of orienting task performance were taken and confidence with face recognition was recorded in Experiment 2. Amnesics performed all tasks similarly to controls and their recognition levels were also similarly affected. They also displayed normal confidence judgments. Results are discussed in terms of the encoding deficit and familiarity loss hypotheses.

Nature of the representation for picture-recognition memory.

When distracting pictures are randomly selected from the same pool of pictures as the target pictures, performance with large numbers of pictures (1,000) is much poorer than has previously been reported. Further, performance drops quite substantially after 1 wk., a finding that differs from the conclusion that picture memory is relatively stable over time. Under conditions where the distractors were selected to reduce similarity between targets and distracting pictures, performance approximated levels previously reported in the literature. The results of the experiments seem to demand some type of categorization model of picture-recognition memory.

Differential Impairment of Memory in Korsakoff's Syndrome

Groups of Korsakoff, alcoholic and non-alcoholic subjects were given picture-recognition memory (patterns and objects) and verbal learning tasks. Korsakoff subjects were impaired relative to the two control groups on verbal learning and object-picture memory; on pattern memory Korsakoff and alcoholic subjects were comparable but both were inferior to non-alcoholics. These findings gave some support to the idea (Butters and Cermak, 1976) that visuo-spatial functions (represented here by pattern memory) are impaired through chronic alcoholism whilst the development of Korsakoff's syndrome induces an additional impairment in semantic processing of information (represented here by verbal learning and object-picture memory).

Useful visual field size for pattern perception

The useful visual field size at each fixation in a pattern was investigated by artificially supplying various visual field sizes on a TV display. The degree of pattern perception was measured in terms of recognition memory for pictures, and the speed of processing pictures was determined as a function of field size. A serious deterioration in the perception of pictures occurred as the visual field was limited to a small area around the fovea (about 3.3° × 3.3°), processing speed becoming extremely slow. Speed increased gradually as visual field size became larger, to reach a certain level beyond which no further increase was observed. The visual field size at this asymptotic speed was called the useful visual field and was found to be about 50% of the entire pattern size. Analysis of eye-movement records demonstrated that in terms of the useful visual field, the scanning characteristics of the eye over the pattern occurred in a heavily overlapping manner to assure good perception of the pattern.

Organizational factors in picture recognition memory

Since humans have been shown to have a large capacity for dealing with pictures but not for more abstract forms of visual information, it follows that humans must rely on existing mental structures in picture recognition tasks. A series of experiments were designed to examine some characteristics of that structure. The results indicate that something analogous to categories exists for pictures and that when subjects view pictures they tag these categories. The decision in a recognition task that they have or have not seen a picture appears to be based on whether or not an existing category has been tagged. For example, the results indicate subjects can detect a new picture as new with a high degree of certainty. Further, the results show that subjects use information contained in or associated with the new member of the pair in a forced-choice procedure for deciding which member of the pair is old. Since other research has shown that figure-ground ratings made by one group of subjects is a reliable predictor of errors for subjects ranging in age from five to adult, there is evidence that whatever the exact nature of these categories they are not only common between individuals but are established at a very early age.

The effect of repeated tests on recognition memory for pictures and words

To determine whether the advantage of picture memory over word memory would be maintained over repeated tests with the same material, eight subjects participated in six sessions of a recognition memory experiment. In each session after the first, half of the studied items and half of the lures from the previous session were switched to the opposite category. Recognition memory, whether measured by hits, false alarms, A′, or confidence ratings, remained at a constant high level across the six sessions, and pictures maintained their advantage over words. There was a small sequential advantage of maintaining an item in the same category from one session to the next, but this was only reliable for new items. We concluded that the advantage of pictures over words in memory is not because of their novelty, and that situational familiarity of the type manipulated here does not appear to operate analogously to naturally occurring familiarity.

Visual recognition memory for binary pictures: Another look.

Visual recognition memory for binary pictures: Another look.

Visual recognition memory for binary pictures: Another look.

Recognition memory for matrices of 0s and 1s was examined as a function of the number of elements (complexity) and density of those elements within the matrix. It was found that with greater density and lesser complexity, recognition performance improved. This result contradicts an earlier finding of Green and Purohit, who concluded that the more complicated matrices led to better performance. The present study suggests that their conclusion was erroneous and stemmed from failure to control the physical parameters of density and number of elements in the matrix. Implications for the general problem of recognition memory and eye movements are discussed.

Recognition memory for related pictures.

This study presents a test of the notion of semantic integration of information m pictures. In Experiment 1. subjects were presented pictures which comprised various subsets of the elements in one of four standard pictures. In the test phase. recognition confidence tor old and new items was a direct function of the number of figures in the test picture. However. recognition confidence was significantly higher for old than for new pictures, contrary to predictions of the integration model of Bransford and Franks (1971). In Experiment 2, the differential predictions of the integration model and the tally model (Reitman & Bower, 19731 were tested. The information for a key standard picture was presented solely as ONEs during acquisition. For the other three standard pictures. information was presented as ONEs, TWOs, and THREEs. The results were that recognition confidence increased with complexity at the test item with regular items but decreased with increasing complexity with key items. Together. these experiments support the tally model and demonstrate the generalizabilitv of this model to handle pictorial materials. Implications regarding the nature of picture memory are also discussed.

Cognitive determinants of fixation location during picture viewing.

This experiment involved the question of where human observers look in a picture. The results indicated that observers fixate earlier, more often, and with longer durations on objects that have a low probability of appearing in a scene (e.g., an octopus in a farm scene) than on objects that have a high probability of appearing (e.g., a tractor in a farm scene). These findings (a) imply a role of cognitive factors in peripheral visual processing and (b) suggest a possible relationship between the nature of information initially acquired from a picture and subsequent recognition memory for that picture.

Monkeys' Recognition Memory for Complex Pictures and the Effect of Fornix Transection

Two monkeys were trained in a running-recognition task with complex pictures. The task was made gradually more difficult by increasing the number of intervening items between the first and second presentation of the same picture. Before undergoing an operation in which the fornix was transected, both monkeys performed above 90% correct even in the most difficult task set, with up to 18 intervening items. After operation neither monkey could reliably perform a much easier task with only 2.7 intervening items on average. This impairment is comparable to that of human amnesic patients in similar tasks.

Recognition Memory for Pictures in Very Young Children: Evidence from Attentional Preferences Using a Continuous Presentation Procedure

DAEHLER, MARVIN W., and BUKATKO, DANUTA. Recognition Memory for Pictures in Very Young Children: Evidence from Attentional Preferences Using a Continuous Presentation Procedure. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 693-696. 9 boys and 9 girls in each of 4 age groups (19, 25, 32, and 37 months) observed 40 different pictures which, after varying numbers of intervening stimuli, reappeared paired with novel pictures. Subjects in each of the 4 groups attended to novel pictures more than familiar pictures. Variation in the number of intervening pictures prior to recognition-test trials had relatively little effect on attentional preference for novel stimuli. The results indicate that attentional preference can be a useful index of recognition memory not only for a few stimuli but also for large numbers of stimuli presented to very young children for only brief periods of time.

Recognition Memory for Pictures in Very Young Children: Evidence from Attentional Preferences Using a Continuous Presentation Procedure

Recognition Memory for Pictures in Very Young Children: Evidence from Attentional Preferences Using a Continuous Presentation Procedure

Picture-Recognition Memory as a Function of Picture Organization and Age

The study was designed to determine whether the failure of previous studies to find a difference between the performance of children and adults in picture-recognition tasks might be due to the number, the selective content and the organization of the pictures used in certain studies of children. The results indicated that irrespective of age, subjects do much better on pictures that possess good figure-ground quality and further that when factors such as number, content and organization are controlled, there are effects due to age.

Developmental changes in recognition memory for pictures of objects and scenes.

Developmental changes in recognition memory for pictures of objects and scenes.

Developmental changes in recognition memory for pictures of objects and scenes.

Developmental changes in recognition memory for pictures of objects and scenes.