Addition and Deletion of Objects on Memory for Composition of Scenes

Abstract

The present study examined the effect of addition and deletion of stimuli to the current environment on perceivers' performance of memory task. Further, the robustness of the asymmetric effects of addition and deletion was investigated. 48 objects in a room were grouped into four schematically consistent or inconsistent conditions. In the experiment, participants viewed a series of an original scene and a target scene with the placement of an object changed from the original scene before the recall and the recognition tasks. Participants were asked whether they noticed change from the original scene to the target scene. The recall tasks were performed both verbal and written. In the recognition task, each of the 24 objects (17 objects were actually present in the scene, but seven were not) was visually presented on the computer display along with confidence ratings. Analysis showed that participants were more likely to recall placement of objects classified as highly expected and highly salient according to an hypothesized schema of placement. There was also a significant effect of addition on recall performance when objects were classified as low in expectation but highly salient were added to the target scene. The effects of addition on schema-inconsistent information were discussed in terms of informativeness of the information.