title: Detailed and gist-like visual memories are forgotten at similar rates over the course of a week.
abstract: A number of recent studies have highlighted the exceptional capacity and fidelity of visual long-term memory. For instance, Brady, Konkle, Alvarez, and Oliva (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, 14325-14329, 2008) presented participants with thousands of images for nearly 6 h and then tested their memory in a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task. Participants were 87% accurate, even when the foil was extremely similar to the target (e.g., when the same object was presented in a different state). In the present investigation, we extended these findings by including a one-week delay condition and by testing memory in a yes-no as well as a 2AFC task. We replicated the exceptional memory results at a short delay. However, following a week delay, recognition accuracy was greatly reduced in both tasks, with comparable reductions in performance when the foils were both similar and dissimilar. These findings suggest that detailed and gist-like visual memories decay at similar rates, which highlights important limitations of visual long-term memory.
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, BS8-1TU, Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Andermane
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, BS8-1TU, Bristol, UK. j.bowers@bristol.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jeffrey S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Bowers
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003118:Color Perception; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Exceptional memory; Recognition memory; Visual long-term memory