Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

False Memories

False Memories

False memories represent a cognitive distortion in which individuals recall events that did not happen, or remember them in an altered form. This phenomenon highlights the brain's constructive nature in processing and recalling memories, emphasizing that memory is not a perfect representation of past events but rather a dynamic reconstruction influenced by various factors.
One primary source of false memories is misattribution, where individuals incorrectly associate external information...

Eyewitness Memory

Eyewitness Memory

Eyewitness memory refers to the recollection of events by someone who has directly witnessed them, often serving as critical evidence in legal settings. This type of memory is commonly used in criminal cases where a witness describes details like a suspect's appearance, clothing, or behavior during a crime. However, despite its perceived reliability, eyewitness memory is prone to significant errors.
One such error is memory distortion, which occurs because human memory does not function...

Role of Hippocampus in Memory

Role of Hippocampus in Memory

The hippocampus, a critical brain structure, plays an essential role in memory processing, particularly in the formation and retrieval of memory. This small, seahorse-shaped region is located within the medial temporal lobe, with one hippocampus in each brain hemisphere. Experimental studies involving lesions in the hippocampi of rats have demonstrated significant impairments in tasks such as object recognition and maze navigation, indicating the hippocampus involvement in both recognition and...

Repressed Memory

Repressed Memory

Repressed memories are a psychological phenomenon where memories of traumatic events are unconsciously blocked from a person's awareness. This process occurs as a defense mechanism, protecting the mind from the emotional impact of distressing or painful experiences. For example, a person who has experienced childhood trauma may grow up with no conscious recollection of the event. In such cases, the memories are thought to be buried deep within the subconscious, inaccessible to the conscious...

Interference and Decay

Interference and Decay

Forgetting is a complex cognitive phenomenon influenced by several factors, among which interference and decay are particularly prominent. These processes explain why individuals often struggle to retrieve specific information from memory, leading to lapses in recall that can be observed in everyday situations.
Interference occurs when competing memories hinder the retrieval of particular information. It can be classified into two types: proactive and retroactive interference. Proactive...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

The format of representation for objects in orbit: Composite and internally referenced.

Psychological review·2026

Same author

The Motion-Silencing Illusion Depends on Object-Centered Representation.

Psychological science·2024

Same author

The role of motion in visual working memory for dynamic stimuli: More lagged but more precise representations of moving objects.

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2023

Same author

You cannot "count" how many items people remember in visual working memory: The importance of signal detection-based measures for understanding change detection performance.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2022

Same author

Publisher Correction: Psychophysical scaling reveals a unified theory of visual memory strength.

Nature human behaviour·2020

Same author

Psychophysical scaling reveals a unified theory of visual memory strength.

Nature human behaviour·2020

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 2, 2026

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

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

Published on: February 19, 2018

How undistorted spatial memories can produce distorted responses.

Mark W Schurgin¹, Jonathan I Flombaum

¹Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Ames Hall, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA, maschurgin@jhu.edu.

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics

|March 19, 2014

Summary

Spatial working memory responses are biased below fixation due to attentional nonuniformities, not memory distortions. This research reveals a new attentional mechanism influencing spatial reproduction accuracy.

More Related Videos

The 4 Mountains Test: A Short Test of Spatial Memory with High Sensitivity for the Diagnosis of Pre-dementia Alzheimer's Disease

The 4 Mountains Test: A Short Test of Spatial Memory with High Sensitivity for the Diagnosis of Pre-dementia Alzheimer's Disease

Published on: October 13, 2016

Author Spotlight: Investigating the Effects of Mind-Body-Movement Practices on Brain Function

Author Spotlight: Investigating the Effects of Mind-Body-Movement Practices on Brain Function

Published on: January 26, 2024

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 2, 2026

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

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

Published on: February 19, 2018

The 4 Mountains Test: A Short Test of Spatial Memory with High Sensitivity for the Diagnosis of Pre-dementia Alzheimer's Disease

The 4 Mountains Test: A Short Test of Spatial Memory with High Sensitivity for the Diagnosis of Pre-dementia Alzheimer's Disease

Published on: October 13, 2016

Author Spotlight: Investigating the Effects of Mind-Body-Movement Practices on Brain Function

Author Spotlight: Investigating the Effects of Mind-Body-Movement Practices on Brain Function

Published on: January 26, 2024

Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychology

Background:

Spatial working memory (SWM) is crucial for object location recall.
Action reproduction from SWM often shows response biases, suggesting memory distortions.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate if attentional nonuniformities, rather than SWM distortions, cause response biases.
Explore the interaction between memory representations and attention during action reproduction.

Main Methods:

Experiment 1: Assessed response bias in object location reproduction.
Experiment 2: Utilized eye-tracking to analyze fixation patterns during response.
Experiment 3: Manipulated head tilt to examine attentional dependencies.

Main Results:

A consistent bias to respond below the actual object position was observed.
Eye-tracking confirmed fixations were centered on target locations, ruling out response-related attention bias.
Head tilt experiments demonstrated a horizontal shift in the bias, linked to attentional focus.

Conclusions:

Response biases in spatial reproduction may stem from attentional mechanisms, not distorted memories.
Nonuniformities in attention, particularly around the fixation point, influence the translation of spatial memory into action.
This study presents a novel attentional mechanism impacting spatial memory recall accuracy.