Visual Memory Research Articles (Page 1)

Perceptual averaging, a fundamental mechanism of visual short-term memory (VSTM), enables automatic extraction of the ensemble mean from similar visual stimuli. While concurrent physical exertion is known to impair VSTM, its impact on this ensemble-coding ability remains unclear. To address this gap, the current study employed a dual-task paradigm combining facial expression recognition with concurrent isometric handgrip contractions. Participants memorized four facial expressions and then classified a face probe as a set member or not while maintaining either 5% or 40% of their maximum force (low vs. high physical load). Results revealed that high physical load reduced hit rate and discriminability (d') while increasing false alarm rate, indicating impaired memory performance. However, recognition accuracy for probes that were the mean of the set and the fitted Gaussian parameter (reflecting the precision of mean representation) remained unchanged across load conditions, suggesting that mean representation was unaffected by concurrent physical exertion. These findings indicate that while concurrent physical exertion disrupts item-specific memory-i.e. individual representation in VSTM-primarily due to shared attentional resource competition between physical action and cognitive processing, perceptual averaging-i.e., mean representation in VSTM-remains resilient to dual-task interference, underscoring its stability and robustness in VSTM functioning.

Partial recognition: The P3 marks the top-down similarity between task-relevant targets and presented stimuli.

Optoelectronic materials with proper charge storage play a pivotal role in the development of artificial neuromorphic devices aiming to mimic the visual, sensory, and memory functions of the human nervous system. This study presents the controllable charge storability in Indium Phosphide quantum dots through being capped with Zinc Selenide shells of different thicknesses. The organic transistors with the quantum dots integrated demonstrate shell-thickness-dependent optoelectronic memory characteristics, featuring optically programmable-electrically erasable channel states. Analysis reveals that the optoelectronic performance of the device is ascribed to the photoexcitation and the following charge storage process in the quantum dots. The device of the thickest quantum-dot-shell performs well as an optoelectronic synapse to emulate the entire human visual sensory and memory function. The frequency-dependent synaptic potentiation/depression, paired-pulse facilitation, short/long-term memory, and "learning-experience" behavior are exhibited in the optoelectronic synaptic device through optical stimuli manipulation. Moreover, the optical sensory performance of the device can be enhanced by a positive gate bias. It enables a successful emulation of Pavlov's dog classical conditioning experiments, realizing the associative learning characteristic with optical and electric signals. This work provides an effective solution for a stable and controllable charge storage medium for optoelectronic synapse applications.

This study explores the profound relationship between art, memory, and visual culture, investigating how artistic practices mediate remembrance and shape collective identity. Drawing on historical, philosophical, and theoretical perspectives, it examines how memory is preserved, challenged, and reimagined through visual representation from ancient art and Renaissance iconography to modernist war memorials and digital media. Through multidisciplinary lenses, including film, performance, architecture, and digital technology, the project highlights how art serves both as a repository and a reactivator of cultural memory, especially in the face of trauma, loss, and historical discontinuity. Key case studies, including post-Holocaust remembrance, Isabel Allende’s narrative visuality, and the public representation of Salvador Allende, underscore the tensions between visibility and erasure, and personal versus collective memory. The research further evaluates the complexities of oral, tactile, and visual memory across different sensory experiences, emphasizing how image, matter, and space become active agents of remembrance. Ultimately, this work argues for a more inclusive and transdisciplinary understanding of memory, where visual culture not only commemorates but interrogates and transforms the way societies remember and engage with the past. Keywords: Art and Memory, Visual Culture, Collective Remembrance, Holocaust Memory, Digital Remembrance, War Memorials, Memory Theory, Sensory Memory.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of an artistic anatomy lecture on medical students and to identify the role of the lecture in education. Methods: A 20-question online satisfaction survey was administered to 32 out of 45 medical students who attended the artistic anatomy lecture at our university in the fall semester of 2023-2024. In the survey, questions were asked to reveal the students' performance regarding the relationship between art and anatomy. SPSS Statistics 22 software (IBM SPSS, Turkey) was used for statistical analysis of the data obtained, and P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Ninety-three point eight percent of students stated that the artistic anatomy lecture contributed to their understanding of the relationship between art and anatomy. Survey results indicated that 87.5% of participants reported the lecture improved their observational skills, while 81.3% said it enhanced their clinical observation skills. In addition, 90.6% of the participants stated that the lecture helped them to understand the importance of art in medical education. Conclusions: The results show that the artistic anatomy lecture supports the development of important skills such as visual memory, analytical thinking and observational skills in medical students. In line with the literature, arts-based educational approaches enable students to gain an interdisciplinary perspective and develop the ability to pay attention to detail in clinical practice. We suggest that our findings may be useful for integrating artistic anatomy lectures into the curriculum of medical education, and may provide guidance to anatomists in this regard.

Social media has developed into a leading advertising platform, with Instagram likes serving as visual cues that may influence consumer perception and behavior. The present study investigated the effect of Instagram likes on visual attention, memory, and food evaluations focusing on traditional Greek food posts, using eye-tracking technology. The study assessed whether a higher number of likes increased attention to the food area, enhanced memory recall of food names, and influenced subjective ratings (liking, perceived tastiness, and intention to taste). The results demonstrated no significant differences in overall viewing time, memory performance, or evaluation ratings between high-like and low-like conditions. Although not statistically significant, descriptive trends suggested that posts with a higher number of likes tended to be evaluated more positively and the AOIs likes area showed a trend towards attracting more visual attention. The observed trends point to a possible subtle role of likes in user’s engagement with food posts, influencing how they process and evaluate such content. These findings add to the discussion about the effect of social media likes on information processing when individuals observe food pictures on social media.

The present study investigates whether voluntary saccades or fixations on an item ensure its visual working memory consolidation through three experiments, which used modified attribute amnesia paradigms. In each trial, all the items were first masked, and participants needed to gaze at the masked locations to temporarily unmask the items below. They were asked to search for the target and report its location in presurprise trials and then were unexpectedly asked to report its identity in a surprise trial and two control trials. In Experiments 3 and 4, the participants were further asked to retain information for a brief while before reporting colors or identities. Report accuracy in the surprise trial was significantly lower than in control trials across four experiments, indicating that an attribute amnesia phenomenon was found. All these results demonstrate that neither voluntary saccades toward an item nor fixations on it are a sufficient condition of automatic visual working memory consolidation of it, indicating the separation between the mechanisms of foveal attention and visual working memory consolidation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Subjective and objective memory in a community-derived sample of people with epilepsy: Evidence from the crimes and four doors tests.

The role of visual and verbal working memory in remembering the past and imagining the future.

ABSTRACT Past research has found substantial evidence of enhanced memory for objects and events that are highly incongruent with individuals’ prior expectations. This well-known bizarreness effect, was recently extended into the domain of colour, revealing enhanced memory for objects paired with expectation-incongruent colours (or bizarre - e.g., blue carrot) relative to expectation-congruent colours (e.g., orange carrots; Morita & Kambara, 2022). Colour bizarreness effects in object memory: Evidence from a recall test and eye tracking.. In two experiments, we explored whether the enhanced memory for bizarre, expectation-incongruent objects includes object-feature memory and whether this feature memory persists long-term. Using a 4-Alternative recognition task, we assessed memory for object colours as a function of expectation-congruence immediately following study and three days later. Results of Study 1 revealed no significant difference in recognition memory for bizarre compared to expectation-congruent colours, and no enhanced memory for bizarre colours in long-term memory. In Study 2, we found that an encoding task requiring participants to activate their prior expectations during study did not promote greater retention of bizarre object features. Instead, the results across both studies revealed a long-term memory advantage for expectation-congruent items. These findings highlight conditions where the enhanced memory for bizarre information is limited, providing an interesting challenge to current mechanistic accounts of memory for expectation-related information.

A pilot study on the possibility of improving driving skills in stable people with schizophrenia: A comparison of short-term learning effects among inexperienced drivers.

Visual working memory is crucial for goal-directed thoughts and behaviors. However, it is not clear how goals modulate working memory maintenance, as previous models often considered stimulus encoding to be the endpoint of goal-directed control. To address this gap, eighty adults performed delayed estimation tasks while their brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography. In each trial, participants memorized three visual gratings varying in orientation and location and were instructed which attribute to recall. Based on recall success, trials were classified as successful or unsuccessful. We examined the effects of task instructions and their behavioral relevance using event-related potentials and multivariate pattern analysis during encoding and maintenance. The orientation task elicited larger contralateral delay activity than the location task. Moreover, the two tasks were decodable from brain patterns during the maintenance phase, and these patterns did not generalize to the encoding phase, suggesting that goal-directed modulation during maintenance was not merely a consequence of selective encoding. We further found that goal-directed modulation involves two functionally distinct processes that unfold dynamically over time, with the latter beginning even before stimulus offset and continuing throughout the entire maintenance phase. Finally, task decoding accuracy was consistently higher for successful than unsuccessful trials during maintenance.

Visual short-term memory skills in children using cochlear implant and typically developing children- a comparative study.

Working memory is crucial for short-term information processing, but its limited capacity means items are not represented with perfect fidelity to the external world. Many systematic patterns of error exist that are thought to be telling of the underlying mechanisms that process and maintain information in memory. Here, we suggest that the processes governing some of these patterns of errors are interrelated and highly individual. Specifically, we look at how perceptual structure relates to stimulus-specific biases in color and further explore the possible implication of this connection for contextual biases like serial dependence and repulsion between concurrently presented items. In Experiment 1, using a novel within-participant serial reproduction method, we reveal reliable attractors in color space across individuals, as well as individual differences that significantly influence these stimulus-specific biases. Simulations based on an independently measured perceptual structure of the stimulus space reproduce the group-level differences but do not capture the observed individual variation. In Experiment 3, we investigate how contextual biases-serial dependence when remembering one item and repulsion when remembering two items-interact with stimulus-specific properties. We identify color-specific properties of these contextual biases, as well as individual differences in the magnitude, direction, and stimulus-specific nature of these biases. We argue that because stimulus-specific biases are connected to perceptual structure, this same latent structure may impact contextual biases. Overall, we show a strong connection between stimulus-specific biases, contextual biases, and perceptual structure, as well as rich individual differences in these biases. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of anaesthesia on cognitive function in young and aged mice: Role of c-Fos expression in hippocampal neuron excitability.

Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS): Iranian normative values and correlates of cognitive function.

Background/Objectives: Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a neurodevelopmental disorder marked by lifelong face recognition difficulties. The 20-item Prosopagnosia Index (PI-20) has become an important tool for screening individuals with DP and has been validated across various groups of English speakers worldwide. Recently, other language versions of PI-20, such as a Simplified Chinese one, have been developed and validated. Given the significant differences between Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese, as well as the distinct user populations, this study aims to validate a Traditional Chinese adaptation of the PI-20 using a standardized face memory task and a novel face authenticity judgment task in Mandarin-speaking populations. Methods and Results: In Study 1 (n = 94) and Study 2 (n = 138), we tested two large independent samples of college students using the English PI-20 and the Traditional Chinese PI-20, respectively. The results show strong internal consistency and similar score distributions in both versions of the PI-20. In Study 3 (n = 64), we examined the correlation between PI-20 scores and performance on the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT). We found a significant correlation with the CFMT score and the Traditional Chinese version, but not with the English version PI-20. In Study 4 (n = 32), we examined whether PI-20 scores correlated with a face authenticity judgment task where participants judged whether the face image was real or AI-synthesized. Results showed that PI-20 negatively correlated with accuracy in judging real faces, but not with judging AI-synthesized faces. Conclusions: Overall, this study shows that although Taiwanese participants validly respond to the original PI-20, the Traditional Chinese version exhibited a stronger association with their objective face memory skills and showed a link to participants’ knowledge about real faces, which is a new finding. The Traditional Chinese PI-20 can serve as a dependable and useful tool in future research.

BackgroundCannabis is a commonly used psychoactive drug, but its cognitive effects remain unclear, particularly in older adults. This study examined associations between past and present cannabis use and cognitive function among dementia-free older adults.MethodsCross-sectional and longitudinal data were drawn from the UK Biobank, including adults aged ≥60 years. Cannabis use patterns were self-reported, and cognitive function was assessed via computerized tests of attention, executive function, processing speed, visual memory and working memory. Multivariable linear regression models adjusted for demographic, health and lifestyle-related covariates.ResultsCross-sectional analyses included 67 713 participants; longitudinal analyses included 52 002 participants with two cognitive assessments (mean age 67.2 ± 4.4 years; 46.1% male). Lifetime cannabis users (17%) performed better across all cognitive domains: attention (B = 0.071), executive function (B = 0.047), processing speed (B = 0.363), visual (B = 0.062) and working memory (B = 0.181). Current use was associated with better working memory (B = 0.169). Mixed and contradictory results were found for early onset, duration and frequency of use with cognitive outcomes. Longitudinally, past use was associated with less decline in executive function, while longer duration of use predicted steeper decline in processing speed.ConclusionsCannabis use is not uniformly harmful to cognition in older adults. Past use was linked to better performance and slower decline in some cognitive domains. However, specific usage patterns, such as longer duration, were associated with poorer outcomes in other domains. These findings highlight the need for further research to clarify underlying mechanisms and guide evidence-based recommendations regarding cannabis use in aging populations.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) bears the highest global burden of under-5 mortality, with congenital heart disease (CHD) as a major contributor. Despite advancements in high-income countries, CHD-related mortality in SSA remains largely unchanged due to limited diagnostic capacity and centralized health care. While pulse oximetry aids early detection, confirmation typically relies on echocardiography, a procedure constrained by a shortage of specialized personnel. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a promising solution to bridge this diagnostic gap. This study aims to develop an AI-assisted echocardiography system that enables nonexpert operators, such as nurses, midwives, and medical doctors, to perform basic cardiac ultrasound sweeps on neonates suspected of CHD and extract accurate cardiac images for remote interpretation by a pediatric cardiologist. The study will use a 2-phase approach to develop a deep learning model for real-time cardiac view detection in neonatal echocardiography, utilizing data from St. Padre Pio Hospital in Cameroon and the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital in South Africa to ensure demographic diversity. In phase 1, the model will be pretrained on retrospective data from nearly 500 neonates (0-28 days old). Phase 2 will fine-tune the model using prospective data from 1000 neonates, which include background elements absent in the retrospective dataset, enabling adaptation to local clinical environments. The datasets will consist of short and continuous echocardiographic video clips covering 10 standard cardiac views, as defined by the American Society of Echocardiography. The model architecture will leverage convolutional neural networks and convolutional long short-term memory layers, inspired by the interleaved visual memory framework, which integrates fast and slow feature extractors via a shared temporal memory mechanism. Video preprocessing, annotation with predefined cardiac view codes using Labelbox, and training with TensorFlow and PyTorch will be performed. Reinforcement learning will guide the dynamic use of feature extractors during training. Iterative refinement, informed by clinical input, will ensure that the model effectively distinguishes correct from incorrect views in real time, enhancing its usability in resource-limited settings. Retrospective data collection for the project began in September 2024, and to date, data from 308 babies have been collected and labeled. In parallel, the initial model framework has been developed and training initiated using a subset of the labeled data. The project is currently in the intensive execution phase, with all objectives progressing in parallel and final results expected within 10 months. The AI-assisted echocardiography model developed in this project holds promise for improving early CHD diagnosis and care in SSA and other low-resource settings. DERR1-10.2196/75270.

The role of motor subtypes in modulating neuropsychiatric and cognitive function in Parkinson's disease: A group-stratified mediation analysis.