The relationship between online visual representation of a scene and long-term scene memory

In 3 experiments the author investigated the relationship between the online visual representation of natural scenes and long-term visual memory. In a change detection task, a target object either changed or remained the same from an initial image of a natural scene to a test image. Two types of changes were possible: rotation in depth, or replacement by another object from the same basic-level category. Change detection during online scene viewing was compared with change detection after delay of 1 trial (Experiments 2A and 2B) until the end of the study session (Experiment 1) or 24 hr (Experiment 3). There was little or no decline in change detection performance from online viewing to a delay of 1 trial or delay until the end of the session, and change detection remained well above chance after 24 hr. These results demonstrate that long-term memory for visual detail in a scene is robust.