Some Properties of Visual Short-Term Memory

Abstract

Ss were exposed to discontinuously presented signals in a compensatory tracking task. Signals were “on” for durations of 16.7, 50, 150, 300, or 500 msec. followed by “off” periods of the same durations. From measures of tracking accuracy under the various on-off combinations, the following conclusions emerge: (a) most of the utilizable visual information is present in the first 15 to 50 msec.; (b) the short-term storage capacity, i.e., the temporal range over which the system can “coast” without input, extends to at least 300 msec.; (c) measures taken under stimulating conditions of long duration and time-varying characteristics result in different assessments of visual short-term memory than those obtained under two-flash (transient response) conditions.

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