Abstract
We explored incidental retention of visual details of encountered objects during search. Participants searched for conjunction targets in 32 arrays of 12 pictures of real-world objects and then performed a token discrimination task that examined their memory for visual details of the targets and distractors from the search task. The results indicate that even though participants had not been instructed to memorize the objects, the visual details of search targets and distractor objects related to the targets were retained after the search. Distractor objects unrelated to the search target were remembered more poorly. Eye-movement measures indicated that the objects that were remembered were looked at more frequently during search than those that were not remembered. These results provide support that detailed visual information is included incidentally in the visual representation of an object after the object is no longer in view.
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This research was supported by National Institute of Aging Grant AGO 4306 to Lynn Hasher and R.T.Z., National Science Foundation Grant BCS 0094433 to J.M.H., and Army Research Office Grant DAAD 19-00-1-0519 to J.M.H. This research derives from C.C.W.’s doctoral dissertation at Michigan State University. Aspects of the data were reported at the third annual meeting of the Vision Science Society, Sarasota, FL, April 2003, and the 44th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Vancouver, BC, November 2003.
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Williams, C.C., Henderson, J.M. & Zacks, f. Incidental visual memory for targets and distractors in visual search. Perception & Psychophysics 67, 816–827 (2005). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193535
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193535