[Visual representation of natural scenes in flicker changes].
Coherence theory in scene perception (Rensink, 2002) assumes the retention of volatile object representations on which attention is not focused. On the other hand, visual memory theory in scene perception (Hollingworth & Henderson, 2002) assumes that robust object representations are retained. In this study, we hypothesized that the difference between these two theories is derived from the difference of the experimental tasks that they are based on. In order to verify this hypothesis, we examined the properties of visual representation by using a change detection and memory task in a flicker paradigm. We measured the representations when participants were instructed to search for a change in a scene, and compared them with the intentional memory representations. The visual representations were retained in visual long-term memory even in the flicker paradigm, and were as robust as the intentional memory representations. However, the results indicate that the representations are unavailable for explicitly localizing a scene change, but are available for answering the recognition test. This suggests that coherence theory and visual memory theory are compatible.
Nakashima
Ryoichi
R
Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. rnaka@L.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Yokosawa
Kazuhiko
K
D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*