Visual memory and visual perception: when memory improves visual search
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 4, 2026

A Gaze-Contingent Display Framework for Perceptual Learning Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss
Published on: April 11, 2025
Benoit Riou1, Mathieu Lesourd, Lionel Brunel
1Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université Lumière Lyon 2, 5 avenue Pierre Mendès France, Bron Cedex, France. benoit.riou@univ-lyon2.fr
Abstract:
This study examined the relationship between memory and perception in order to identify the influence of a memory dimension in perceptual processing. Our aim was to determine whether the variation of typical size between items (i.e., the size in real life) affects visual search. In two experiments, the congruency between typical size difference and perceptual size difference was manipulated in a visual search task. We observed that congruency between the typical and perceptual size differences decreased reaction times in the visual search (Exp. 1), and noncongruency between these two differences increased reaction times in the visual search (Exp. 2). We argue that these results highlight that memory and perception share some resources and reveal the intervention of typical size difference on the computation of the perceptual size difference.
Related Concept Videos
Depth Perception and Spatial Vision
Visual System
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...
Chunking and Rehearsal in Sensory Memory
Eyewitness Memory
One such error is memory distortion, which occurs because human memory does not function like a...
Color Vision
Visual Agnosia

