Direct Access by Spatial Position in Visual Memory. 3. The Roles of Uncertainty About Position, Target, and Response in Information Retrieval
Abstract
Storage time has dramatic effects on the retrieval of visual information specified by location. In this study we use two new experimental procedures to assess the roles in the retrieval process of uncertainty about location, target, and response, and of changes in such uncertainty with storage time. In one procedure we provided advance information of the set of alternative locations that might be queried by the probe. Insofar as spatial uncertainty plays a role in processing of the probe, this manipulation would especially benefit small arrays, and should steepen the function that relates mean reaction time to array size. In a second procedure we provided advance information of the set of alternative target stimuli and responses. Insofar as stimulus uncertainty and response uncertainty play roles in generation of the response, this manipulation would also especially benefit small arrays, and should have a similar effect on the array-size function. In sharp contrast to these expectations, we found no effect of our manipulations on the time to retrieve information from visual memory. The results add support to an explanation of the effects of storage time which attributes them to the rapid transformation of an initial random-access visual memory into a sequential-access memory. Keywords: Psychology, Visual-information-processing, Reaction time, Visual memory.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 15, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA198740
Entities
People
- David L. Turock
- Ronald L. Knoll
- Saul Sternberg
Organizations
- University of Pennsylvania