Testing a conceptual locus for the inconsistent object change detection advantage in real-world scenes

Changes to objects that are inconsistent with the scene in which they appear are detected more accurately than changes to consistent objects. In three experiments, we tested whether this inconsistent object advantage derives from the differential retention of conceptual codes generated from a brief view of a real-world scene in accordance with a conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) hypothesis. A scene was presented for 250 msec, followed by a brief mask and a test scene in which a target object was either changed or not changed. In Experiment 1, changes that altered conceptual content (object deletion) were contrasted with visual changes (left-right orientation changes). In Experiment 2, the duration of the mask was manipulated to vary the amount of time available for conceptual consolidation of the initial scene. In Experiment 3, the type of mask was manipulated: Either a meaningless pattern mask or a meaningful, and thus conceptually disruptive, scene was shown. The inconsistent object advantage was obtained in each experiment, yet in none was it modulated in the direction predicted by the CSTM hypothesis. Instead, the inconsistent object advantage is likely to be caused by contextual influence on memory for visual object representations.