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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
Published on: February 19, 2018
Memory for the search path: evidence for a high-capacity representation of search history
Christopher A Dickinson1, Gregory J Zelinsky
1Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA. cdickins@udel.edu
Abstract:
Using a gaze-contingent paradigm, we directly measured observers' memory capacity for fixated distractor locations during search. After approximately half of the search objects had been fixated, they were masked and a spatial probe appeared at either a previously fixated location or a non-fixated location; observers then rated their confidence that the target had appeared at the probed location. Observers were able to differentiate the 12 most recently fixated distractor locations from non-fixated locations, but analyses revealed that these locations were represented fairly coarsely. We conclude that there exists a high-capacity, but low-resolution, memory for a search path.
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