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 Concept Videos

Storage01:23

Storage

A schema is a mental framework that helps individuals organize and interpret information. Schemata, formed from previous experiences, influence how we process new information: how we encode it, the inferences we make, and how we retrieve it. For instance, a schema for what a typical classroom looks like might include desks, a teacher's desk, a whiteboard, and students in such an environment. This expectation helps us quickly understand and navigate new classrooms without needing to analyze each...
Depth Perception and Spatial Vision01:15

Depth Perception and Spatial Vision

Depth perception is the ability to perceive objects three-dimensionally. It relies on two types of cues: binocular and monocular. Binocular cues depend on the combination of images from both eyes and how the eyes work together. Since the eyes are in slightly different positions, each eye captures a slightly different image. This disparity between images, known as binocular disparity, helps the brain interpret depth. When the brain compares these images, it determines the distance to an object.
Working Memory01:24

Working Memory

Working memory refers to a combination of components, including short-term memory and attention, that allow an individual to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks. It is an essential cognitive function that enables the execution of complex tasks such as problem-solving, comprehension, and reasoning. Unlike short-term memory, which simply involves the storage of information for a brief period, working memory involves the active manipulation and processing of this information.
Mnemonic Devices01:23

Mnemonic Devices

Mnemonic devices are cognitive tools that facilitate memory retention by linking new information to familiar patterns or organizational strategies. These techniques are beneficial for remembering complex or lengthy sets of information by simplifying and structuring them in easily retrievable ways.
Acronyms
Acronyms are created by using the initial letters of a series of words to form a new word or phrase. This approach condenses complex information into a single, memorable entity. For example,...
System of Memory01:23

System of Memory

Memory is categorized into three major systems: sensory memory, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM). These systems differ in their capacity and the duration for which they can hold information. Sensory memory captures raw sensory input from the environment, holding it for just a few seconds or less. For example, on hearing a brief, loud sound, like a car horn honking, the sound seems to linger in the mind for a moment even after it stops. This is an instance of sensory memory...
Visual Agnosia01:12

Visual Agnosia

Visual agnosia is a condition characterized by the inability to recognize visually presented objects despite having normal vision. For instance, a person with visual agnosia can describe the shape and color of an object but cannot identify or name it. This impairment does not affect their visual field, acuity, color vision, brightness discrimination, language, or memory. An example of this condition in a social setting is someone at a dinner party asking for "that silver thing with a round end"...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

Social prioritisation in scene viewing and the effects of a spatial memory load.

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2023
Same author

On the role of top-down and bottom-up guidance in conjunction search: Singleton interference revisited.

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2023
Same author

Do cognitive load and ADHD traits affect the tendency to prioritise social information in scenes?

Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)·2021
Same author

Priming of Pop-out does not provide reliable measures of target activation and distractor inhibition in selective attention: Evidence from a large-scale online study.

Vision research·2018
Same author

Gatecrashing the visual cocktail party: How visual and semantic similarity modulate the own name benefit in the attentional blink.

Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)·2018
Same author

Near-independent capacities and highly constrained output orders in the simultaneous free recall of auditory-verbal and visuo-spatial stimuli.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2017

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 23, 2026

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
05:15

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition

Published on: February 19, 2018

Coding categorical and coordinate spatial relations in visual-spatial short-term memory.

Kevin Dent1

  • 1Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. k.dent@bham.ac.uk

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|May 15, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Visual-spatial short-term memory (VSSTM) better encodes categorical spatial relationships than coordinate ones. This suggests categorical relations are fundamental to spatial configuration memory.

More Related Videos

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise
06:17

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise

Published on: January 26, 2024

A Metric Test for Assessing Spatial Working Memory in Adult Rats Following Traumatic Brain Injury
05:53

A Metric Test for Assessing Spatial Working Memory in Adult Rats Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Published on: May 7, 2021

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 23, 2026

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
05:15

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition

Published on: February 19, 2018

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise
06:17

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise

Published on: January 26, 2024

A Metric Test for Assessing Spatial Working Memory in Adult Rats Following Traumatic Brain Injury
05:53

A Metric Test for Assessing Spatial Working Memory in Adult Rats Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Published on: May 7, 2021

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Human Computer Interaction

Background:

  • Visual-spatial short-term memory (VSSTM) is crucial for processing and retaining spatial information.
  • Understanding how spatial relationships are encoded in VSSTM informs theories of memory and perception.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the differential coding of categorical versus coordinate spatial relations in VSSTM.
  • To determine if categorical spatial coding is linked to verbal processes or object-position associations.

Main Methods:

  • Four experiments used successive stimulus presentation and required participants to detect positional changes.
  • Changes were either coordinate (small shift, same relation) or categorical (shift altering relation).
  • Manipulations included articulation suppression and varying memory load (color-position vs. position only).

Main Results:

  • Participants showed higher accuracy in detecting categorical changes compared to coordinate changes for independent locations.
  • This categorical advantage persisted despite articulation suppression and was independent of color-position associations.
  • No categorical advantage was observed when memory elements formed polygon vertices, indicating a spatial, not object-based, effect.

Conclusions:

  • Categorical spatial relations are preferentially encoded in VSSTM, suggesting they are an intrinsic property of spatial configuration representation.
  • The coding of categorical spatial relations is not dependent on verbal coding or specific object-position binding requirements.
  • Findings challenge previous assumptions linking categorical coding to verbal mechanisms.