The relationship between encoding and recall for the identities and locations of objects

Abstract

Five experiments are reported which investigated the relationship between the number of fixations that participants made on objects in a photograph of a visual scene and the memory that participants exhibited for the identities and locations of those objects. The results of Experiment 1 showed that there is a very close relationship between encoding and recall for both the identities and locations of objects, and provided evidence that information about identities and locations of objects might be encoded differently. Specifically, the data suggested that object identities were encoded across multiple fixations, thereby accumulating in memory across separate fixations. However, object locations were encoded accurately after the first fixation on an object and did not appear to improve significantly with subsequent fixations. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the relationship between encoding and recall can be influenced using a lower-level attentional capture technique to draw. Experiment 3 investigated whether a primacy or recency effect was found for object identity and location memory. No such evidence was obtained for either. Experiment 4 provided evidence that information about the overall configuration of objects was encoded without the need for each object to be directly fixated. Experiments 4 and 5 both found that objects must be fixated for their specific location to be encoded, but also provided some suggestive evidence that object location memory might also accumulate across fixations (though to a lesser extent than for object identity memory). Hollingworth and experimental work. Modifications to this model were proposed to account for the current findings. In conclusion, the five experiments provide significant insight into encoding processes associated with memory for the identities and locations of objects

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