title: Space constancy vs. shape constancy.
abstract: The perceived distance between objects has been found to decrease over time in memory, demonstrating a partial failure of space constancy. Such mislocalization has been attributed to a generalized compression effect in memory. We confirmed this drift with a pair of remembered dot positions but did not find a compression of perceived distance when the space between the dots was filled with a connecting line. When the dot pairs were viewed eccentrically the compression in memory was substantially less. These results are in line with a combination of factors previously demonstrated to cause distortion in spatial memory--foveal bias and memory averaging--rather than a general compression of remembered visual space. Our findings indicate that object shape does not appear to be vulnerable to failures of space constancy observed with remembered positions.
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain and Cognition, Department of Information Technology and Communication, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08018 Barcelona, Spain. phil.jaekl@upf.edu
authors.forename: Philip M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Jaekl
authors.forename: Laurence R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult