Spatial memory is usually better for iconic than for verbal material. Our aim was to assess whether such effect is related to the way iconic and verbal targets are viewed when people have to memorize their locations. Eye movements were recorded while participants memorized the locations of images or words. Images received fewer, but longer, gazes than words. Longer gazes on images might reflect greater attention devoted to images due to their higher sensorial distinctiveness and/or generation with images of an additional phonological code beyond the visual code immediately available. We found that words were scanned mainly from left to right while a more heterogeneous scanning strategy characterized encoding of images. This suggests that iconic configurations tend to be maintained as global integrated representations in which all the item/location pairs are simultaneously present whilst verbal configurations are maintained through more sequential processes.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AndrewsT JCoppolaD M, 1999“Idiosyncratic characteristics of saccadic eye movements when viewing different environments”Vision Research392947–2953.
2.
AwhE.JonidesJ., 2001“Overlapping mechanisms of attention and spatial working memory”Trends in Cognitive Sciences5119–126.
3.
BaddeleyA D, 1986Working Memory (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
4.
BuswellG T, 1935How People Look at Pictures (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press).
5.
CattaneoZ.PostmaA.VecchiT., 2006“Gender differences in memory for object and word locations: The role of stimulus transformations”Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology59904–919.
6.
EngelkampJ.ZimmerH., 1994The Human Memory—A Multi-Modal Approach (Seattle, WA: Hogrefe).
7.
FindlayJ MGilchristI D, 2003Active Vision: The Psychology of Looking and Seeing (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
IntraubH.NicklosS., 1985“Levels of processing and picture memory: The physical superiority effect”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition11284–298.
10.
IrwinD EZelinskyG J, 2002“Eye movements and scene perception: Memory for things observed”Perception & Psychophysics646882–895.
11.
JiangY.OlsonI RChunM M, 2000“Organization of visual short-term memory”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition26683–702.
12.
KesselsR P CPostmaA.De HaanE H F, 1999“Object Relocation: A program for setting up, running and analyzing experiments on memory for object locations”Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers31423–428.
13.
KöhlerS.MoscovitchM.MeloB., 2001“Episodic memory for object location versus episodic memory for object identity: Do they rely on distinct encoding processes?”Memory & Cognition29948–959.
14.
LawrenceB MMyersonJ.AbramsR A, 2004“Interference with spatial working memory: An eye movement is more than a shift of attention”Psychonomic Bulletin & Review11488–494.
15.
LecerfT.de RibaupierreA, 2005“Recognition in a visuospatial memory task: The effect of presentation”European Journal of Cognitive Psychology1747–75.
16.
LiversedgeS PFindlayJ M, 2000“Saccadic eye movements and cognitive sciences”Trends in Cognitive Sciences46–14.
17.
LogieR H, 1995Visuo-spatial Working Memory (Hove, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).
18.
MammarellaI CCornoldiC.PazzagliaF.TosoC.GrimoldiM.VioC., 2006“Evidence for a double dissociation between spatial-simultaneous and spatial-sequential working memory in visuospatial (nonverbal) learning disabled children”Brain and Cognition6258–67.
19.
NelsonD LReedV SWallingJ R, 1976“The pictorial superiority effect”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory2523–528.
20.
PaivioA., 1971Imagery and Verbal Processes (New York: Holt, Reinhart & Winston).
21.
ParkD CCherryK ESmithA DLafronzaV N, 1990“Effects of distinctive context on memory for objects and their locations in young and older adults”Psychology and Aging5250–255.
22.
PearsonD GSahraieA., 2003“Oculomotor control and the maintenance of spatially and temporally distributed events in visuo-spatial working memory”Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A561089–1111.
23.
PezdekK.RomanZ.SobolikK G, 1986“Spatial memory for objects and words”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition12530–537.
24.
PostmaA.De HaanE H F, 1996“What was there? Memory for object locations”Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A49178–199.
25.
PostmaA.KesselsP C Rvan AsselenM, 2004“The neuropsychology of object-location memory”, in Human Spatial Memory: Remembering Where Ed. AllenG L, (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates) pp 143–163.
26.
PuglisiJ TParkD CSmithA DHillG W, 1985“Memory for two types of spatial location: Effects of instruction age and format”American Journal of Psychology98101–118.
27.
VecchiT.CattaneoZ.MonegatoM.PeceA.CornoldiC.PietriniP., 2006“Why Cyclops could not compete with Ulysses: Monocular vision and mental images”NeuroReport17723–726.
28.
YarbusA., 1967Eye Movements and Vision (New York: Plenum).
29.
ZimmerH D, 1998“Spatial information with pictures and words in visual short-term memory”Psychological Research614277–284.
30.
ZimmerH D, 2004“The construction of mental maps based on a fragmentary view of physical maps”Journal of Educational Psychology96603–610.
31.
ZimmerH DLehnertG., 2006“The spatial mismatch effect is based on global configuration and not on perceptual records within the visual cache”Psychological Research701–12.
32.
ZimmerH DSpeiserH.SeidlerB., 2003“Spatio-temporal working memory and short-term object-location tasks use different memory mechanisms”Acta Psychologica11441–65.
