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Do masks terminate the icon?

Hannah Smithson¹, John Mollon

¹University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. hannah.smithson@durham.ac.uk

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)

|March 25, 2006

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Backward masking experiments challenge traditional iconic memory models. New findings suggest iconic memory may not be automatically overwritten, proposing alternative storage mechanisms for visual information.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Visual Perception
Human Memory

Background:

Iconic memory, defined by part-report experiments, is traditionally viewed as being overwritten by subsequent stimuli.
Backward masking is commonly used to study the duration and decay of iconic memory.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether a cue presented after a pattern mask can still facilitate selection within a target array.
To challenge the automatic displacement or overwriting model of iconic memory.

Main Methods:

Participants viewed a target array of letters followed by a checkerboard mask.
Two target-mask interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 0 ms and 100 ms were used.
Performance was assessed using part-report and whole-report measures across varying cue delays.

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Main Results:

At 0 ms ISI, performance was at chance level for both report types.
A significant part-report advantage (25-30%) was observed at 100 ms ISI with short cue delays.
The part-report advantage diminished as the cue delay increased.

Conclusions:

Results contradict the notion that iconic memory is automatically displaced or overwritten.
Alternative models, such as a feature-based second-stage store or a four-dimensional store, are proposed.
Findings have implications for understanding backward masking's effect on iconic memory termination.