Binocular Rivalry and Immediate Memory

Abstract

Three experiments examine features of a simple memory task on which right-handed, right eye dominant subjects have been reported to recall digits projected to the right eye more accurately than those projected simultaneously to the left eye. Superior recall by these subjects of information projected to the right eye was observed only when stimuli projected simultaneously to both eyes were seen as overlapped in the binocular percept. Under monocular presentations, accuracy of recall was not related to the eye with which stimuli were viewed. The binocular oveslap condition has a significance other than that of simply increasing the difficulty of identifying the elements in a visual display for there were no differences in accuracy of recall from each eye when overlapped stimuli were viewed monocularly. More accurate recall of right eye information appears to reflect the resolution of a conflict between inputs from each eye. The possible relation of this finding to cerebral dominance is also discussed. Order of recall in these experiments depended mainly on spatial cues provided by the experimental situation.