Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

The role of visual short-term memory in empty cell localization.

Andrew Hollingworth1, Joo-Seok Hyun, Weiwei Zhang

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52240, USA. andrew-hollingworth@uiowa.edu

Perception & Psychophysics
|March 25, 2006
PubMed
Summary

Visual memory performance at long interstimulus intervals (ISIs) improves with simpler patterns, indicating visual short-term memory (VSTM) relies on figural grouping. Participants remember empty cells, not dots, for localization tasks.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Testing a sensory preactivation account of attention guidance from visual working memory.

Journal of experimental psychology. General·2026
Same author

Saccades to spatially extended objects: The roles of observer goals and part-structure cues in determining within-object landing position.

Journal of vision·2026
Same author

Dissociations and interactions between attention guidance from negative templates maintained in visual working memory and long-term memory.

Cognition·2026
Same author

Template-based and saliency-driven attentional control converge to coactivate on a common, spatially organized priority map.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2025
Same author

Are selection history effects limited to implicit forms of memory? Evidence from intertrial repetition.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2024
Same author

Saccades to partially occluded objects: Perceptual completion mediates oculomotor control.

Journal of vision·2024

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Visual Perception
  • Human Memory

Background:

  • Understanding visual memory representations is crucial for explaining performance across different time intervals.
  • Previous research indicated performance recovery at long interstimulus intervals (ISIs) in localization tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the visual memory representations supporting performance at long ISIs.
  • To determine if figural grouping in visual short-term memory (VSTM) influences long-ISI performance.

Main Methods:

  • Three experiments used an empty cell localization task with two successive dot arrays in a 4x4 grid.
  • Experiment 2 manipulated pattern complexity to assess VSTM's role.
  • Experiment 3 examined memory for empty cells versus dots.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Performance recovered to high levels at long ISIs, replicating prior findings.
  • Pattern complexity affected performance at long ISIs, favoring simpler patterns, suggesting VSTM figural grouping.
  • At 0-msec ISI, pattern complexity had no effect, indicating reliance on visible persistence.

Conclusions:

  • Long-ISI performance in empty cell localization relies on figural grouping within VSTM.
  • Visible persistence, not VSTM figural grouping, supports performance at immediate ISIs.
  • Participants primarily remember the empty cells of the initial array for comparison.