S1 (FriAM 1-65) - The Psychonomic Society

Posters 2112–2117 Friday Noon
& JEFFREY S. KATZ, Auburn University (sponsored by Jeffrey S.
Katz)—In an open-field search task, pigeons searched for a goal located
at the midpoint of the hypothetical line connecting two landmarks. In Experiment
1, global orienting cues were absent. After reaching criteria, pigeons
were tested with novel interlandmark distances. Search error and
location on test trials suggested that pigeons learned relative distance. In
Experiment 2, a global orienting cue was present. After reaching criteria,
pigeons were again tested with novel interlandmark distances. The
results suggested that pigeons learned absolute distance. In Experiment
3, pigeons searched at the midpoint of rotated arrays in both the
presence and the absence of a global orienting cue, indicating learning
of relative direction. In Experiment 4, pigeons searched in the appropriate
goal direction when presented a single landmark in the presence but
not in the absence of a global orienting cue, indicating learning of absolute
direction. The results suggested that pigeons learned both absolute
and relative distance and direction from discrete visual landmarks.
• WORKING MEMORY •
(2112)
Visuospatial Working Memory and Warnings Modulate Object
Location Memory. PAULA J. WADDILL, RISA IKEMOTO, & ELISE
WIGGINTON, Murray State University—Postma and DeHaan (1996)
have proposed that object location memory utilizes separate processes
related to memory for locations and to assignment of objects to locations,
and that verbal mediation may be important for the latter but not
the former process. In this study, we investigated the degree to which
individual differences in both visuospatial and verbal working memory
correlated with memory for locations of object pairs. We also
evaluated the degree to which warnings to avoid inaccurate placement
of the pairs affected location memory. Warnings significantly reduced
mean displacement distance for both real objects and nonsense shapes
and significantly decreased mislocations of real objects. Correlations
of location memory with visual span, spatial span, and executive functioning
measures were modulated by type of object and warning condition.
Measures of verbal working memory did not correlate with object
location accuracy. Implications for models of object location
memory are discussed.
(2113)
Encoding, Representation, and General Fluid Intelligence in Visuospatial
Working Memory. LISA M. DURRANCE & BENJAMIN A.
CLEGG, Colorado State University—Two experiments examined processing
in visuospatial working memory (VSWM). These investigated
encoding and representation processes, and their relationship to general
cognitive ability. It has been suggested that information in
VSWM is represented in a hierarchical global configuration. However,
prior research has also found encoding differences between simultaneous
and sequential presentation formats. The present experiments
examined whether effects of presentation are mirrored by
changes in organization. Simultaneous versus sequential presentations
were employed at study, with participants tested using four different
spatial configurations to examine the type of representation operating
in each condition. The results support a global spatial configuration
in VSWM following both sequential and simultaneous displays. Additionally,
significant correlations between gF and visuospatial performance
in the sequential condition, but not in the simultaneous conditions,
implicate greater involvement of general cognitive abilities in
processing spatial sequential information. These results will be discussed
in terms of the VSWM model.
(2114)
The Effect of Spatial and Nonspatial Contextual Information on
Object Visual Memory. HSIN-MEI SUN & ROBERT D. GORDON,
North Dakota State University—Recent research has found that object
memory is stored as part of a larger scene representation rather than
independently of scene context. The present study examined how spatial
and nonspatial contextual information contribute to visual short-
85
term memory. We tested participants’ visual memory by using a
change detection task in which a target object’s orientation was either
the same as it appeared during initial viewing or changed. In addition,
we examined the effect of spatial and nonspatial contextual manipulations
on change detection performance. The results revealed that
change detection performance was reduced when either spatial or nonspatial
contextual information changed in the test image. Thus, object
memory is stored as part of a more comprehensive scene representation,
and both spatial and nonspatial contextual changes impair memory
for target properties (e.g., orientation).
(2115)
Perceptual Expertise Enhances the Resolution but Not the Number
of Representations in Working Memory. MIRANDA SCOLARI,
EDWARD K. VOGEL, & EDWARD AWH, University of Oregon
(sponsored by Edward Awh)—Despite its central role in cognition, capacity
in visual working memory is restricted to about three or four
items. Curby and Gauthier (in press) examined whether perceptual expertise
can help to overcome this limit by enabling more efficient coding
of visual information. In line with this, they observed higher capacity
estimates for upright than for inverted faces, suggesting that
perceptual expertise enhances visual working memory. The present
work examined whether the improved capacity estimates for upright
faces indicates an increased number of “slots” in working memory, or
improved resolution within the existing slots. Our results suggest that
perceptual expertise enhances the resolution but not the number of
representations that can be held in working memory. These results
clarify the effects of perceptual expertise in working memory, and
support recent suggestions that number and resolution represent distinct
facets of working memory ability.
(2116)
The Capacity and Constraint in Color–Shape Integration Across
Time. Y.-Y. YEH, National Taiwan University—Working memory plays
an important role in the control processes involved in integration. In
four experiments, we investigated the capacity and constraint in the
integration of information held in working memory with the current
percept. In all experiments, an array of colors and shapes were sequentially
presented at the same location for integration. The results
suggested that integration in working memory is limited in capacity
and the newly bound representation is unstable after a retention interval
of 1 sec. Participants were able to integrate only 1–2 representations
even when stimulus duration was long at 1 sec. Once the two
features were integrated, shape recognition was worse when the embodied
color in a test probe was inaccurate. In contrast, color recognition
was not affected by the inaccurate shape in the probe. The implications
on information integration and feature processing of a
bound representation are discussed.
(2117)
Olfactory Single-Probe Serial Position Recall: Cross-Modal
Equivalence. ANDREW J. JOHNSON & CHRISTOPHER MILES,
Cardiff University (sponsored by Dylan M. Jones)—Four experiments
explored the serial position functions produced following singleprobe
serial recall of olfactory, visual, and auditory sequences. Experiment
1 demonstrated that participants were capable of encoding
absolute positional information of odors for sequences of 4, 5, and 6
odors. An absence of serial position effects was produced across sequence
lengths. Application of unfamiliar faces to the same paradigm
(Experiment 2) produced recency and some primacy across sequence
lengths, whereas sequences of pure tones generated a function with
recency only (Experiment 3). Articulatory suppression revealed that
the presence of primacy following unfamiliar-face sequences was facilitated,
although not uniquely reliant upon verbal labeling (Experiment
4). The findings question the proposal of Ward, Avons, and
Melling (2005) that the serial position function is task rather than
modality dependent, with qualitatively different function produced for
different modalities despite employment of an equivalent task.