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How the brain remembers and forgets where things are: The neurocognition of object-location memory
Abstract
Remembering where things are - object-location memory - is essential for daily-life functioning. Functionally, it can be decomposed into at least three distinct processing mechanisms: (a) object processing, (b) spatial-location processing and (c) object to location binding. A neurocognitive model is sketched, which posits a mostly bilateral ventral cortical network supporting object-identity memory, a left fronto-parietal circuit for categorical position processing and working memory aspects, and a right fronto-parietal circuit for coordinate position processing and working memory. Medial temporal lobes and in particular the hippocampus appear essential for object-location binding. It is speculated that categorical object-location binding and episodic memory binding in general depend more on the left-sided areas, whereas coordinate object-location processing and navigation in large scale space involve the right-sided counterparts. The various object-location memory components differ in the extent to which they are automatized or require central effort. While automatic routines protect against brain damage, neural deficits might potentially also lead to a shift upon the automatic-effortful continuum.
... Les travaux sur ce phénomène en psychologie et dans les Computer Sciences se sont largement focalisés jusqu'ici sur les causes de pertes d'objets et les stratégies de recherche utilisées (Tenney, 1984 ;Caldwell & Masson, 2001 ;Peters et al., 2004 ;Postma et al., 2008). Les principales causes mises en avant pour expliquer l'incapacité à localiser un objet que l'on a soi-même déplacé sont les erreurs d'inattention (absentmindedness), les erreurs de mise à jour (updating error), les échecs de détection (detection failure), et les effets de contexte (pour revue, voir Smith & Cohen, 2008). ...
... Une stratégie de ce type qui a beaucoup été étudiée est l'action replay, soit le fait de se repasser en mémoire la séquence d'événements ayant précédé la manipulation la plus récente de l'objet (Da Costa Pinto & Baddeley, 1991 ;Lutz et al., 1994 ;Smith & Cohen, 2008). La mémoire de l'emplacement des objets (object location memory) -parfois également appelée mémoire spatiale (spatial memory) -est ainsi fréquemment assimilée à un type de mémoire épisodique (King et al., 2004 ;Postma et al., 2008). ...
... Réciproquement, les derniers scénarios envisagés pourraient avoir reposé sur des éléments perçus comme plus incertains, par exemple un raisonnement du type : il est possible que l'objet se trouve dans telle pièce car je sais que j'y suis allé ; je n'ai toutefois aucun souvenir de si j'avais alors l'objet avec moi. Mais ce résultat pourrait aussi s'expliquer par le fait que la plupart des participants ont mémorisé la position de l'objet -lui ont attribué des coordonnées dans leur système de mémoire de places (Postma et al., 2008) -sans pour autant avoir encodé la dernière manipulation ou une image visuelle de l'objet à cet endroit (nous allons y revenir dans la prochaine section). Aussi, lorsqu'ils commencent à chercher l'objet, ils s'attendent à le trouver à cet emplacement sans avoir à entrer dans un processus de sondage de leur mémoire épisodique. ...
La manière dont nous procédons lorsque nous cherchons un objet égaré est rarement anarchique : nous mettons en œuvre des stratégies de recherche, envisageant différentes hypothèses sur l’endroit où pourrait se trouver l’objet, et les éliminant progressivement jusqu’à localiser celui-ci. Pour étudier les processus de raisonnement à l’œuvre dans ce genre d’activités, nous avons soumis des participants à une tâche de recherche d’objets en contexte écologique et avons analysé les heuristiques spontanément mises en œuvre pour organiser l’activité de recherche. Les résultats montrent que les stratégies employées sont contraintes par des exigences de cohérence informationnelle et de plausibilité. Les participants, pour s’expliquer la disparition de l’objet et organiser leur activité de recherche, favorisent des scénarios qui leur apparaissent plausibles au regard des éléments d’information disponibles, en particulier les faits mémorisés, mais qui sont compatibles, plus généralement, avec leur connaissance des principes généraux régissant le déplacement des corps.
... Object-location memory (OLM) is crucial for the adaption to dynamic surroundings throughout life, such as recalling the arrangement of a grocery store to efficiently locate items [1]. OLM functions tend to diminish within normal aging processes as well as in the course of neurodegenerative diseases [2][3][4]. ...
... Deficits in OLM, like misplacing objects, can be seen as an early sign of pathological processes in Alzheimer's disease [2,4]. Quantification of OLM performance in clinical and experimental settings is possible by using neuropsychological tests that assess the capacity to recognize objects, their placements, and later recall them independently [1,5,6]. So far, no effective treatments to encounter deficits in OLM are available [2,3]. ...
... Successful OLM requires distinct cognitive processes: the identification of an object (object processing), consideration of its location (spatial location processing) and the connection of these information (binding objects to location) [1,7]. These processes involve a large cortical network including fronto-temporo-parietal regions, along with the hippocampus and neighboring structures [7][8][9]. ...
Remembering objects and their associated location (object–location memory; OLM), is a fundamental cognitive function, mediated by cortical and subcortical brain regions. Previously, the combination of OLM training and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) suggested beneficial effects, but the evidence remains heterogeneous. Here, we applied focal tDCS over the right temporoparietal cortex in 52 participants during a two-day OLM training, with anodal tDCS (2 mA, 20 min) or sham (40 s) on the first day. The focal stimulation did not enhance OLM performance on either training day (stimulation effect: −0.09, 95%CI: [−0.19; 0.02], p = 0.08). Higher electric field magnitudes in the target region were not associated with individual performance benefits. Participants with content-related learning strategies showed slightly superior performance compared to participants with position-related strategies. Additionally, training gains were associated with individual verbal learning skills. Consequently, the lack of behavioral benefits through focal tDCS might be due to the involvement of different cognitive processes and brain regions, reflected by participant’s learning strategies. Future studies should evaluate whether other brain regions or memory-relevant networks may be involved in the modulation of object–location associations, investigating other target regions, and further exploring individualized stimulation parameters.
... Basic research on memory is at the heart of using drawing as a lie detection tool. Research on spatial memory indicates that humans, like other animals, are adept at remembering spatial aspects of an episodic event (Postma, Kessels, & Van Asselen, 2008). This ability is invaluable from an evolutionary perspective, as it allows animals to efficiently find food or avoid dangers in their environment, but also for modern everyday tasks, such as remembering where one left one's keys. ...
... Some argue that it is largely an automatic process, requiring little intentional effort (Hasher & Zacks, 1979), while others argue it is not as automatic as it may first appear (Light & Zelinski, 1983;Naveh-Benjamin, 1987). Regardless of the exact extent to which our encoding of spatial information is automatic, it seems that this ability is at least partly hardwired and is carried out with relative ease (Postma et al., 2008;Pouliot & Gagnon, 2005). The ease with which people encode and remember spatial information is supported by other areas of memory research. ...
... For example, this research shows that spatial orientation is processed from one of two primary reference points. Locations can be framed with respect to one's own position (egocentric framing) or with respect to external objects or landmarks (alocentric framing; Postma et al., 2008). The study by Van Veldhuizen et al. (2017) examined participants' drawings of the main square in Tilburg. ...
... Object-location memory is a complex neurocognitive ability that presents a challenge for our cognitive system. It involves three components: (1) object-processing, (2) spatial-location processing, and (3) object-location binding [1]. Object-location memory is a fundamental ability that is needed in our daily lives. ...
... Other studies have shown that intention to remember locations improves memory performance (e.g., [4]). Postma and colleagues [1] speculated that each component of object-location memory differs in its processing automaticity, with the spatial-location component operating more automatically than the object identity and object-location binding processing components. ...
... Studies investigating the neural correlates of object-location memory have demonstrated the involvement of the right hippocampus in spatial binding [1]. Only a few studies have examined the neural correlates of implicit and explicit spatial memory. ...
The role of attention allocation in object-location memory has been widely studied through incidental and intentional encoding conditions. However, the relation between sustained attention and memory encoding processes has scarcely been studied. The present study aimed to investigate performance differences across incidental and intentional encoding conditions using a divided attention paradigm. Furthermore, the study aimed to examine the relation between sustained attention and incidental and intentional object-location memory performance. Based on previous findings, an all women sample was recruited in order to best illuminate the potential effects of interest. Forty-nine women participated in the study and completed the psychomotor vigilance test, as well as object-location memory tests, under both incidental and intentional encoding divided attention conditions. Performance was higher in the incidental encoding condition than in the intentional encoding condition. Furthermore, sustained attention correlated with incidental, but not with intentional memory performance. These findings are discussed in light of the automaticity hypothesis, specifically as it regards the role of attention allocation in encoding object-location memory. Furthermore, the role of sustained attention in incidental memory performance is discussed in light of previous animal and human studies that have examined the brain regions involved in these cognitive processes. We conclude that under conditions of increased mental demand, executive attention is associated with incidental, but not with intentional encoding, thus identifying the exact conditions under which executive attention influence memory performance.
... Where was the best food source? (Pertzov et al., 2012;Postma et al., 2008). This is consistent with the emerging view of VWM that shifts the focus from change detection-type tasks to tasks that more closely model everyday situations, such as making coffee, finding your personal items -keys, wallet, phone -before leaving the house (Kristjánsson & Draschkow, 2021). ...
... We accomplished this by presenting both unique and repeated items in each trial. Second, our paradigm required participants to go beyond simple change detection, instead requiring four alternative forcedchoice recognition of item-location bindings, which is consistent with a move toward tasks that better model everyday situations (Kristjánsson & Draschkow, 2021;Postma et al., 2008). Finally, we added a verbal filler task between encoding and response to protect against verbal rehearsal, which has often been neglected in PI study designs in VWM (for an exception, see Endress & Siddique, 2016). ...
Proactive interference (PI) occurs when previously learned information impairs memory for more recently learned information. Most PI studies have employed verbal stimuli, while the role of PI in visual working memory (VWM) has had relatively little attention. In the verbal domain, Johansson and colleagues (2018) found that pupil diameter – a real-time neurophysiological index of cognitive effort – reflects the accumulation and resolution of PI. Here we use a novel, naturalistic paradigm to test the behavioral and pupillary correlates of PI resolution for what-was-where item-location bindings in VWM. Importantly, in our paradigm, trials (PI vs. no-PI condition) are mixed in a block, and participants are naïve to the condition until they are tested. This design sidesteps concerns about differences in encoding strategies or generalized effort differences between conditions. Across three experiments (N = 122 total) we assessed PI’s effect on VWM and whether PI resolution during memory retrieval is associated with greater cognitive effort (as indexed by the phasic, task-evoked pupil response). We found strong support for PI’s detrimental effect on VWM (even with our spatially distributed stimuli), but no consistent link between interference resolution and effort during memory retrieval (this, even though the pupil was a reliable indicator that higher-performing individuals tried harder during memory encoding). We speculate that when explicit strategies are minimized, and PI resolution relies primarily on implicit processing, the effect may not be sufficient to trigger a robust pupillometric response.
... In real-world visual search, multiple sources of foreknowledge could be acquired and used in concert to optimize the allocation of attention during the visual search process (Egner et al., 2008;Kingstone, 1992). Specifically, learning spatial and temporal associations may enable the observer to predict the location where an object will occur in space and when it will appear in time (Kahana, Howard, & Polyn, 2008;Postma, Kessels, & van Asselen, 2008). ...
... Stable landmarks and objects in the environment offer valuable spatial cues for navigation, orienting, and visual search. Binding object identities to locations is considered a key process of visual working memory (VWM) and episodic long-term memory (LTM) (Postma & De Haan, 1996;Postma, Kessels, & van Asselen, 2008). Associative object-location memory can be learned intentionally and tested explicitly in recall or recognition tests (Postma, Kessels, & van Asselen, 2004;Shih, Meadmore, & Liversedge, 2012). ...
In a visual environment, objects are encoded within a spatial and temporal context. The present study investigated whether incidental learning of spatial and temporal associations in hybrid visual and memory search enable observers to predict targets in space and time. In three experiments, observers looked for four, previously memorized, target items across many trials. We examined effects of learning target item sequences (e.g., the butterfly always follows the paint box), target location sequences (e.g., a target in the lower middle-left always follows a target in the right corner), target item-location associations (the butterfly is always in the right corner), and target item-location sequences (the butterfly in the right corner always follows the paint box in the lower middle-left). We found only weak incidental learning for the sequences of target items or target locations alone. By contrast, we found good learning of target item-location associations. Furthermore, we did find a reliable effect of sequence learning for target item-location associations. These findings suggest that spatiotemporal learning in hybrid search is hierarchical: Only if spatial and non-spatial target features are bound, temporal associations can bias attention dynamically to the task-relevant features expected to occur next.
... Following the training with MindTheCity! and following the control condition (passive navigation, see section "Experimental Procedures" below), participants were asked to perform a spatial memory task (i.e., a spatial object-location memory task (Postma et al., 2008;Zimmermann and Eschen, 2017), where subjects had to locate some objects in their correct locations in space and recording subjects' responses), developed using Unity (see text footnote 1). Graphics and the software for stimulus presentation were realized by SynArea Consultants Srl (Turin, Italy). ...
... The present spatial memory task particularly promotes the use of allocentric representations. The objects to be remembered are positioned in a grid, thus encouraging the adoption of allocentric coordinates (Postma et al., 2008). Furthermore, the objects were all close to each other, rather than being spread in a large virtual environment (see Figure 1), thus resulting all in front of the participants, therefore making the use of egocentric coordinates unsuitable. ...
Allocentric space representations demonstrated to be crucial to improve visuo-spatial skills, pivotal in every-day life activities and for the development and maintenance of other cognitive abilities, such as memory and reasoning. Here, we present a series of three different experiments: Experiment 1, Discovery sample (23 young male participants); Experiment 2, Neuroimaging and replicating sample (23 young male participants); and Experiment 3 (14 young male participants). In the experiments, we investigated whether virtual navigation stimulates the ability to form spatial allocentric representations. With this aim, we used a novel 3D videogame ( MindTheCity! ), focused on the navigation of a virtual town. We verified whether playing at MindTheCity! enhanced the performance on spatial representational tasks (pointing to a specific location in space) and on a spatial memory test (asking participant to remember the location of specific objects). Furthermore, to uncover the neural mechanisms underlying the observed effects, we performed a preliminary fMRI investigation before and after the training with MindTheCity! . Results show that our virtual training enhances the ability to form allocentric representations and spatial memory (Experiment 1). Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed the behavioral results of Experiment 1. Furthermore, our preliminary neuroimaging and behavioral results suggest that the training activates brain circuits involved in higher-order mechanisms of information encoding, triggering the activation of broader cognitive processes and reducing the working load on memory circuits (Experiments 2 and 3).
... The hippocampus is involved in the development of viewpoint independent spatial representations and in spatial perspective taking (King et al., 2002;Hartley et al., 2007;Hartley and Harlow, 2012). Further, object location binding mechanisms are also thought to be hippocampus dependent (Piekema et al., 2006;Postma et al., 2008). Given the age-related neurodegeneration of the hippocampus, which underpins place recognition mechanisms, it is unsurprising that older adults are impaired in place recognition ability. ...
... We also found that sensitivity to detect changes in the place was lower overall for the swap condition in which two of the four objects were exchanged between encoding and test than for the substitute condition in which one object was replaced with a new object. The increased difficulty of the swap condition can be explained by the requirement to engage object location binding mechanisms to successfully recognise the place (Postma et al., 2008;Pertzov et al., 2012), whereas the substitute condition can be solved with object identity knowledge alone. Importantly, an interaction between age group and manipulation revealed that the drop in sensitivity between substitute and swap conditions was greater for older adults than for younger adults. ...
The ability to recognise places is known to deteriorate with advancing age. In this study, we investigated the contribution of age-related changes in spatial encoding strategies to declining place recognition ability. We recorded eye movements while younger and older adults completed a place recognition task first described by Muffato et al. (2019). Participants first learned places, which were defined by an array of four objects, and then decided whether the next place they were shown was the same or different to the one they learned. Places could be shown from the same spatial perspective as during learning or from a shifted perspective (30° or 60°). Places that were different to those during learning were changed either by substituting an object in the place with a novel object or by swapping the locations of two objects. We replicated the findings of Muffato et al. (2019) showing that sensitivity to detect changes in a place declined with advancing age and declined when the spatial perspective was shifted. Additionally, older adults were particularly impaired on trials in which object locations were swapped; however, they were not differentially affected by perspective changes compared to younger adults. During place encoding, older adults produced more fixations and saccades, shorter fixation durations, and spent less time looking at objects compared to younger adults. Further, we present an analysis of gaze chaining, designed to capture spatio-temporal aspects of gaze behaviour. The chaining measure was a significant predictor of place recognition performance. We found significant differences between age groups on the chaining measure and argue that these differences in gaze behaviour are indicative of differences in encoding strategy between age groups. In summary, we report a direct replication of Muffato et al. (2019) and provide evidence for age-related differences in spatial encoding strategies, which are related to place recognition performance.
... Since there is some evidence that executive dysfunction affects memory for visual material more than memory for verbal material [23], such remote effects may even explain the observation that deficits in verbal memory are often specific to left temporal lobe epilepsy, while deficits in visual memory may occur both in left and in right temporal lobe epilepsy [24]. On the other hand, recent models suggest that visualor at least visuospatialmemory may be subserved by a network that includes left and right frontoparietal as well as temporal areas [25,26], indicating that the material-specificity hypothesis may not hold for all kinds of visual material. ...
... And whereas negative changes in verbal memory were not limited to but clearly more severe in children whose surgery included the left hippocampus, there was no clear relation between side or site of surgery and negative changes in visual memory. The present results, therefore, appear to support the hypothesis that while the left hippocampus is crucial for verbal memory, visual memory is in fact subserved by a wider network which includes areas in the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes of both cerebral hemispheres [25,26]. However, the negative changes in visual memory after left temporal lobectomy may also be attributable to compensatory mechanisms such as 'crowding': verbal memory functions initially subserved by the now absent left temporal lobe may be reorganized to the right hemisphere, crowding out visual memory functions. ...
Visual memory is vulnerable to epilepsy surgery in adults, but studies in children suggest no change or small improvements. We investigated visual memory after epilepsy surgery, both group-wise and in individual children, using two techniques to assess change: 1) repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and 2) an empirically based technique for detecting cognitive change [standardized regression-based (SRB) analysis]. A prospective cohort consisting of 21 children completed comprehensive assessments of memory both before surgery (T0) and 6 (T1), 12 (T2), and 24 months (T3) after surgery. For each patient, two age-and gender-matched controls were assessed with the same tests at the same intervals. Repeated measures ANOVA replicated the results of previous studies reporting no change or minor improvements after surgery. However, group analysis of SRB results eliminated virtually all improvements, indicating that the ANOVA results were confounded by practice effects. Standardized regression-based group results showed that in fact patients scored lower after surgery than would be predicted based on their presurgical performance. Analysis of individual SRB results showed that per visual memory measure, an average of 18% of patients obtained a significantly negative SRB score, whereas, on average, only 2% obtained a significantly positive SRB score. At T3, the number of significantly negative SRB scores outweighed the number of significantly positive SRB scores in 62% of patients. There were no clear associations of clinical variables (including side and site of surgery and postsurgical seizure freedom) with memory outcome. The present analysis revealed that given their individual presurgical functioning, many children obtained disappointing results on some visual memory tests after epilepsy surgery. Comparison of the SRB analysis with ANOVA results emphasizes the importance of empirically based techniques for detecting cognitive effects of epilepsy surgery in childhood.
... We are immersed in a world of objects, and remembering their spatial locations is critical for planning actions, orienting ourselves, and effectively navigating our surroundings (Ekstrom & Hill, 2023;Manns & Eichenbaum, 2009;Postma & De Haan, 1996). Several experimental studies have been conducted to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the ability to memorize the positions of objects (Postma, Kessels, & van Asselen, 2008) and the magnitude of individual differences in object-location memory tasks (Voyer, Postma, Brake, & Imperato-McGinley, 2007). However, less is known about the impact that objects' features have on spatial memory. ...
Extensive literature elucidated the mechanisms underlying the ability to memorize the positions of objects in space. However, less is known about the impact that objects' features have on spatial memory. The present study aims to investigate differences in egocentric and allocentric object-location memory between hand stimuli depicted in a first-person perspective (1PP) or in a third-person one (3PP). Fifty-two adults encoded spatial positions within a virtual museum environment featuring four square buildings. Each of these buildings featured eight paintings positioned along the walls, with two pictures displayed on each of the four walls. Thirty-two stimuli were employed, which represented pictures of the right hand performing various types of gestures. Half of the stimuli depicted the hand in the 1PP, while the other half depicted the hand in the 3PP. Both free and guided explorations served as encoding conditions. Immediately after that, participants underwent a two-step object-location memory task. Participants were provided with a map of the museum and asked to identify the correct building where the image was located (allocentric memory). Then, they were presented with a schematic representation of the exhibition room divided into four sections and instructed to select the section where they thought the picture was located (egocentric memory). Our findings indicate a memory performance boost associated with egocentric recall, regardless of the perspective of the bodily stimuli. The results are discussed considering the emerging literature on the mnemonic properties of body-related stimuli for spatial memory.
... The ventral cortical pathway, responsible for processing of object and content identity, and the dorsal cortical pathway, responsible for processing of spatial-contextual information, converge in the hippocampus for integration (10) Quiroz 1,2,3,4 also been identified as major endpoints of the ventral and dorsal streams, respectively, playing an important role in the temporal sequencing of information (11). The medial temporal lobe is among the earliest to demonstrate neurodegenerative changes in AD (12) and as a result may interrupt the integration of an object's identity with its spatial and temporal contexts (13). ...
Contextual memory, the ability to remember spatial or temporal features related to an event, is affected in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). There is a shortfall of tests that measure contextual memory. To evaluate visuospatial contextual memory, we developed a computerized cognitive test, the MAPP Room Memory Test, which requires participants to identify in which visual scene target items were previously presented. We hypothesized that cognitively-unimpaired carriers of an autosomal dominant AD mutation (Presenilin-1 E280A, n=15) would perform more poorly on this test than non-carrier family members (n=31). Compared to non-carriers, the carriers had significantly worse delayed room recognition. The results indicate that the MAPP Room Memory Test may be sensitive to subtle cognitive changes associated with risk of AD. Future studies with larger samples using the MAPP Room Memory Test and biomarkers are needed to examine whether this test may also be sensitive to the earliest pathological changes in preclinical AD.
... Here we investigate the potential "double-edged" sword of semantic relatedness in the context of item location memory (Postma & De Haan, 1996;Postma et al., 2008). In contrast to a typical free recall task, in which participants are simply required to recall all items, a location memory task requires binding to-be-remembered items to specific locations (e.g., Hund & Plumert, 2003;Lu et al., under review). ...
While memory for semantically related items is improved over unrelated items in many cases, relatedness can also lead to memory costs. Here we examined how the semantic relatedness of words within a display influenced memory for their locations. Participants learned the locations of words inside grid displays; the words in a given display were either from a single category or were from different assorted categories. When a display containing words from a single category was compared to a scrambled display containing words from multiple categories, location memory performance was rendered worse, while word recall performance was significantly improved. Our results suggest that semantically structured spaces can both help and harm memory within the context of a location memory task. We hypothesize that relatedness can improve memory performance by increasing the likelihood that matching candidates will be retrieved, yet might worsen performance that requires distinguishing between similar target representations.
... On the other hand, evidence is also accumulating that shows smaller differences between men and women in route knowledge than previously believed. As to older users, there is evidence that while attentional acuity and explicit memory degrade with advancing age, implicit memory for spatial relations is not affected (Hasher & Zacks, 1979;Postma et al., 2008Postma et al., , p. 1343. The ability to recall the precise position of objects was not greatly impaired for 80-year-olds when compared to 20-year-olds in one study (Pertzov, Heider, Liang, & Husain, 2015). ...
During our nearly constant use of digital devices, perhaps our most frequent need is to visually identify icons representing our content and invoke the actions to manipulate them. Almost since the inception of user interface design in the 1970s, with rare exception it has become the tendency for programmers to prescribe the arrangement these things in uniform rectilinear rows and columns. This was imported from theories for print design and ultimately brought into widespread practice for graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Whether consistent rectilinearity actually does better than less rectilinear arrangements to maximize selection efficiency has not been challenged on considerations of speed or any other measure. In a series of four experiments, we explore how alignment may in fact discourage easy recallability of screen object locations and hence increase search intensity. A second objective is to present a methodological model where we deliberately attempt to begin with psychophysical cognitive evidence at the environmental schematic low end (beginning with contextual cueing paradigm), then move progressively upwards in naturalism in the experiments to something that approximates actual human work at the higher end, all along attempting to keep one important environmental property constant. Two experiments using contextual cueing paradigm confirm that collinearly aligned arrays do not encourage recallability of location, while noncollinear arrays appear to create traces that can be recalled automatically. Two other experiments give further demonstration of explicit recollection and location recall, showing that collinear arrangements may in fact induce location recall errors to neighboring collinear objects. We discuss surrounding theoretical, historical, and practical questions.
... The authors related spatial and object coding phenomena to two distinct visual processes that encode "what" and "where" information. Postma et al. [14] examined the neurocognition of object-location memory. The authors found that object-location memory is functionally divided into three processing mechanisms-namely, object processing, spatiallocation processing, and object-to-location binding. ...
p>Augmented reality (AR) offers novel ways to design, curate, and deliver information to users by integrating virtual, computer-generated objects into a real-world environment. This work presents an AR-based human memory augmentation system that uses computer vision (CV) and artificial intelligence (AI) to replace the internal mental representation of objects in the environment with an external augmented representation. The system consists of two components: (1) an AR headset and (2) a computing station. The AR headset runs an application that senses the indoor environment, sends data to the computing station for processing, receives the processed data, and updates the external representation of objects using a virtual 3D object projected into the real environment in front of the user's eyes. The computing station performs computer vision-based indoor environment self-localization, object detection, and object-to-location binding using first-person view (FPV) data received from the AR headset.
We designed a behavioral study to evaluate the usability of the system. In a pilot study with 26 participants (12 females and 14 males), we investigated human performance in an experimental task that involved remembering the positions of objects in a physical space and displaying the positions of the learned objects on the two-dimensional (2D) map of the space. We conducted the studies under two conditions---that is, with and without using the AR system. We investigated the usability of the system, subjective workload, and performance variables under both conditions. The results showed that the AR-based augmentation of the mental representation of objects indoors reduced cognitive load and increased performance accuracy.</p
... The authors related spatial and object coding phenomena to two distinct visual processes that encode "what" and "where" information. Postma et al. [14] examined the neurocognition of object-location memory. The authors found that object-location memory is functionally divided into three processing mechanisms-namely, object processing, spatiallocation processing, and object-to-location binding. ...
p>Augmented reality (AR) offers novel ways to design, curate, and deliver information to users by integrating virtual, computer-generated objects into a real-world environment. This work presents an AR-based human memory augmentation system that uses computer vision (CV) and artificial intelligence (AI) to replace the internal mental representation of objects in the environment with an external augmented representation. The system consists of two components: (1) an AR headset and (2) a computing station. The AR headset runs an application that senses the indoor environment, sends data to the computing station for processing, receives the processed data, and updates the external representation of objects using a virtual 3D object projected into the real environment in front of the user's eyes. The computing station performs computer vision-based indoor environment self-localization, object detection, and object-to-location binding using first-person view (FPV) data received from the AR headset.
We designed a behavioral study to evaluate the usability of the system. In a pilot study with 26 participants (12 females and 14 males), we investigated human performance in an experimental task that involved remembering the positions of objects in a physical space and displaying the positions of the learned objects on the two-dimensional (2D) map of the space. We conducted the studies under two conditions---that is, with and without using the AR system. We investigated the usability of the system, subjective workload, and performance variables under both conditions. The results showed that the AR-based augmentation of the mental representation of objects indoors reduced cognitive load and increased performance accuracy.</p
... Lastly, sex differences in hippocampal function have also been studied from the perspective of object recognition and object location memory [reviewed in (46). Although the involvement of the hippocampus in object recognition in rodents remains controversial (103,104), object location memory is a well-accepted hippocampal mediated function in both humans and rodents (105). However, it is important to note that the sexual dimorphism observed in object memory appears to be species specific, whereby in humans, women exhibit enhanced object recognition and localization memory compared to men (106), but this difference is not readily apparent in rodents. ...
Hormones are important regulators of key processes during fetal brain development. Thus, the developing brain is vulnerable to the action of chemicals that can interfere with endocrine signals. Epidemiological studies have pointed toward sexually dimorphic associations between neurodevelopmental outcomes, such as cognitive abilities, in children and prenatal exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). This points toward disruption of sex steroid signalling in the development of neural structures underlying cognitive functions, such as the hippocampus, an essential mediator of learning and memory processes. Indeed, during development, the hippocampus is subjected to the organizational effects of estrogens and androgens, which influence hippocampal cell proliferation, differentiation, dendritic growth and synaptogenesis in the hippocampal fields of Cornu Ammonis and the dentate gyrus. These early organizational effects correlate with a sexual dimorphism in spatial cognition and are subject to exogenous chemical perturbations. This review summarises the current knowledge about the organizational effects of estrogens and androgens on the developing hippocampus and the evidence for hippocampal-dependent learning and memory perturbations induced by developmental exposure to EDCs. We conclude that, while it is clear that sex hormone signalling plays a significant role during hippocampal development, a complete picture at the molecular and cellular levels would be needed to establish causative links between the endocrine modes of action exerted by EDCs and the adverse outcomes these chemicals can induce at the organism level.
... Patients with hippocampal pathology due to perinatal anoxia (Vargha-Khadem et al., 1997) show impaired object-location memory. According to two reviews of the literature of lesion studies (Postma, Kessels & van Asselen, 2008;Zimmermann & Eschen, 2017) and neuroimaging studies (Zimmermann & Eschen, 2017), the right hippocampus plays a critical role in object-location processing. ...
Brain networks supporting visual memory include extrastriate and other cortical regions associated with visual perception, which manifest domain-specific processing of "where," "how," and various aspects of "what" information. However, whether and how such specialization affects memory for these types of information is still a matter of debate. Functional neuroimaging studies point to dissociable as well as common network components supporting the perception and memory of different aspects of visual information. In the current neuropsychological study, we assess the impact of stroke lesion topography on recall of identity, location, and action of event participants, as assessed by the WMS-III Family Pictures subtest. We used voxel-based lesion-behavior mapping (VLBM) to identify brain lesions specifically implicated in memory deficits for each dimension. Behavioral analysis disclosed impaired performance by both right- and left-hemisphere damage patients, with lesions on each side yielding distinct effects. VLBM analysis revealed a bi-hemispheric network supporting these various aspects of visual memory. In the right hemisphere, the network includes frontal, parietal, and temporal cortical regions and the basal ganglia. In the left hemisphere, the network is more restricted, including visual association areas and medial temporal lobe regions. We further observed that a subset of these regions - those included in the ventral ("what") stream, and in the putative core recollection network - is implicated in multiple aspects of visual memory, whereas other areas are specifically implicated in memory for specific aspects of the visual scene.
... However, in real life, encountering an object is often associated with an affective experience. While memory for object-location associations has been extensively studied in the spatial cognition literature (1)(2)(3)(4), a general understanding of whether and how the affective and spatial pillars of memory interact remains elusive. We here looked at how affect can modulate memory for the spatial representation of an object. ...
Episodic autobiographical memories are characterized by a spatial context and an affective component. But how do affective and spatial aspects interact? Does affect modulate the way we encode the spatial context of events? We investigated how one element of affect, namely aesthetic liking, modulates memory for location, in three online experiments (n = 124, 79, and 80). Participants visited a professionally curated virtual art exhibition. They then relocated previously viewed artworks on the museum map and reported how much they liked them. Across all experiments, liking an artwork was associated with increased ability to recall the wall on which it was hung. The effect was not explained by viewing time and appeared to modulate recognition speed. The liking-wall memory effect remained when participants attended to abstractness, rather than liking, and when testing occurred 24 h after the museum visit. Liking also modulated memory for the room where a work of art was hung, but this effect primarily involved reduced room memory for disliked artworks. Further, the liking-wall memory effect remained after controlling for effects of room memory. Recalling the wall requires recalling one's facing direction, so our findings suggest that positive aesthetic experiences enhance first-person spatial representations. More generally, a first-person component of positive affect transfers to wider spatial representation and facilitates the encoding of locations in a subject-centered reference frame. Affect and spatial representations are therefore important, and linked, elements of sentience and subjectivity. Memories of aesthetic experiences are also spatial memories of how we encountered a work of art. This linkage may have implications for museum design.
... the hippocampus [27][28][29] , which suffers from decreased activation due to aging 30 . Consequently, temporary memory about the identity and location of visual objects has been investigated throughout the lifespan, to determine whether and how aging may alter these mechanisms 4,31,32 . ...
The ability to maintain visual working memory (VWM) associations about the identity and location of objects has at times been found to decrease with age. To date, however, this age-related difficulty was mostly observed in artificial visual contexts (e.g., object arrays), and so it is unclear whether it may manifest in naturalistic contexts, and in which ways. In this eye-tracking study, 26 younger and 24 healthy older adults were asked to detect changes in a critical object situated in a photographic scene (192 in total), about its identity (the object becomes a different object but maintains the same position), location (the object only changes position) or both (the object changes in location and identity). Aging was associated with a lower change detection performance. A change in identity was harder to detect than a location change, and performance was best when both features changed, especially in younger adults. Eye movements displayed minor differences between age groups (e.g., shorter saccades in older adults) but were similarly modulated by the type of change. Latencies to the first fixation were longer and the amplitude of incoming saccades was larger when the critical object changed in location. Once fixated, the target object was inspected for longer when it only changed in identity compared to location. Visually salient objects were fixated earlier, but saliency did not affect any other eye movement measures considered, nor did it interact with the type of change. Our findings suggest that even though aging results in lower performance, it does not selectively disrupt temporary bindings of object identity, location, or their association in VWM, and highlight the importance of using naturalistic contexts to discriminate the cognitive processes that undergo detriment from those that are instead spared by aging.
... While the importance of memory mechanisms has also been stressed in prior research and in clinical models on mental health, in particular with respect to trauma patients, the novelty of the CBM concept is to stress the importance of studying the neuronal mechanisms that underlie the storage and retrieval of past bodily experiences to understand their contribution to mental health. The reason why this is critical is that research on episodic memory has in the past mostly focused on visual perception [95][96][97], in particular object perception [98][99][100], autobiographical memories [5,101,102] including emotional memories [103][104][105], as well as everyday experiences such as spatial navigation [106,107], but has so far not focused on the mechanisms of how everyday bodily experiences, for example, driven by touch, pain or interoception, are stored and retrieved by memory networks. The CBM mechanisms summarize evidence to support the view that the investigation of how bodily experiences are stored and represented in memory is crucial in order to develop effective treatments for mental disorders where those mechanisms are causally involved. ...
Bodily experiences such as the feeling of touch, pain or inner signals of the body are deeply emotional and activate brain networks that mediate their perception and higher-order processing. While the ad hoc perception of bodily signals and their influence on behavior is empirically well studied, there is a knowledge gap on how we store and retrieve bodily experiences that we perceived in the past, and how this influences our everyday life. Here, we explore the hypothesis that negative body memories, that is, negative bodily experiences of the past that are stored in memory and influence behavior, contribute to the development of somatic manifestations of mental health problems including somatic symptoms, traumatic re-experiences or dissociative symptoms. By combining knowledge from the areas of cognitive neuroscience and clinical neuroscience with insights from psychotherapy, we identify Clinical Body Memory (CBM) mechanisms that specify how mental health problems could be driven by corporeal experiences stored in memory. The major argument is that the investigation of the neuronal mechanisms that underlie the storage and retrieval of body memories provides us with empirical access to reduce the negative impact of body memories on mental health.
... Consistent with this division, observers need to encode the identity and location of objects to be able to bind this information together [24][25][26] . These processes rely at least in part on the hippocampus [27][28][29] , which suffers from decreased activation due to aging 30 . Consequently, temporary memory about the identity and location of visual objects has been investigated throughout the lifespan, to determine whether and how aging may alter these mechanisms 4,31,32 . ...
The ability to maintain visual working memory (VWM) associations about the identity and location of objects decrease with age. To date, however, this age-related difficulty was mostly observed in artificial visual contexts (e.g., object arrays), and so it is unclear whether it may manifest in naturalistic contexts, and in which ways. In this eye-tracking study, 26 younger and 24 healthy older adults were asked to detect changes on a critical object situated in a photographic scene (192 in total), about its identity (the object becomes a different object but maintains the same position), location (the object only changes position) or both (the object changes in location and identity). Aging was associated with a lower change detection performance. A change in identity was harder to detect than a location change, and performance was best when both features changed, especially in younger adults. Eye movements displayed minor differences between age groups (e.g., shorter saccades in older adults) but were similarly modulated by the type of change. Latencies to the first fixation were longer and the amplitude of incoming saccades larger when the critical object changed in location. Once fixated, the target object was inspected for longer when it only changed in identity compared to location. Our findings suggest that, even though aging results in lower performance, it does not selectively disrupt temporary bindings of object identity, location or their association in VWM, and highlight the importance of using naturalistic contexts to discriminate the cognitive processes that undergo detriment from those that are instead spared by aging.
... A number of behavioral (Lee & Chun, 2001;Li et al., 2015;Wood, 2011) and neurophysiological (Darling et al., 2006;Smith et al., 1995) studies showed that memory for objects and memory for locations have separate capacities. Moreover, there is also evidence that object-location memory can be a separate process from storing only objects or only locations (Postma & De Haan, 1996;Postma, Kessels, & van Asselen, 2008). Pertzov et al. (2012) suggested that object-location swaps play an important role in delay-related forgetting in VWM. ...
Visual working memory (VWM) is prone to interference from stored items competing for its limited capacity. Distinctiveness or similarity of the items is acknowledged to affect this competition, such that poor item distinctiveness causes a failure to discriminate between items sharing common features. In three experiments, we studied how the distinctiveness of studied real-world objects (i.e., whether the objects belong to the same or different basic categories) affects the retrieval of objects themselves (simple recognition) and object-location conjunctions (information about which object was where in a display, cued recall). In Experiments 1 and 2, we found that distinctiveness did not affect memories for objects or for locations, but low-distinctive objects were more frequently reported at “swapped” locations that originally contained other objects, showing object-location memory swaps. In Experiments 3 we found that observers swapped the location of a tested object with another object from the same category more frequently than with any of the objects from another category. This suggests that more similar studied objects cause more retrieval competition in object-location judgments than in simple recognition. Additionally, we discuss a possible role of categorical labeling of locations that can support object-location retrieval when the studied objects are highly distinct.
... EF is a multi-componential cognitive ability consisting of cooperating processes that are necessary to acquire, combine and select spatial information and related processing strategies, and to plan and monitor behavioral motor responses according to environmental requirements [18,19]. These abilities are strongly implicated in processing egocentric (subject-to-object) and allocentric (object-to-object) visuo-spatial memory representations [20][21][22][23][24]. Indeed, a largely neglected aspect of the clinical assessment is that executive functions may be involved at various levels in egocentric and allocentric spatial encodings, and thus it would be important to understand the extent of their reciprocal or selective impairment [8,25,26]. ...
A difficulty in encoding spatial information in an egocentric (i.e., body-to-object) and especially allocentric (i.e., object-to-object) manner, and impairments in executive function (EF) are typical in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Since executive functions are involved in spatial encodings, it is important to understand the extent of their reciprocal or selective impairment. To this end, AD patients, aMCI and healthy elderly people had to provide egocentric (What object was closest to you?) and allocentric (What object was closest to object X?) judgments about memorized objects. Participants' frontal functions, attentional resources and visual-spatial memory were assessed with the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), the Trail Making Test (TMT) and the Corsi Block Tapping Test (forward/backward). Results showed that ADs performed worse than all others in all tasks but did not differ from aMCIs in allocentric judgments and Corsi forward. Regression analyses showed, although to different degrees in the three groups, a link between attentional resources, visuo-spatial memory and egocentric performance, and between frontal resources and allocentric performance. Therefore, visuo-spatial memory, especially when it involves allocentric frames and requires demanding active processing, should be carefully assessed to reveal early signs of conversion from aMCI to AD.
... This is also observed in objectlocation binding with impairments in recalling the specific location of objects (Kessels et al. 2007;Berger-Mandelbaum and Magen 2019;Muffato et al. 2019) as well as recalling the identity of an object within an environment (Schiavetto et al. 2002;Kessels et al. 2007;Mazurek et al. 2015). The binding of objectlocation information has been hypothesized to involve the medial temporal lobes, including the hippocampus (Postma et al. 2008), although age-related changes in the prefrontal cortex, posterior neocortex and other regions have also been implicated in object location and object identity tasks (Schiavetto et al. 2002;Meulenbroek et al. 2010). In the medial temporal lobes, the integration of object and spatial information is thought to arise from two parallel information processing streams (Eichenbaum 1999;Eichenbaum et al. 1999;Davachi 2006;Ranganath and Ritchey 2012;Knierim et al. 2013). ...
There has been considerable focus on investigating age-related memory changes in cognitively healthy older adults, in the absence of neurodegenerative disorders. Previous studies have reported age-related domain-specific changes in older adults, showing increased difficulty encoding and processing object information but minimal to no impairment in processing spatial information compared with younger adults. However, few of these studies have examined age-related changes in the encoding of concurrently presented object and spatial stimuli, specifically the integration of both spatial and nonspatial (object) information. To more closely resemble real-life memory encoding and the integration of both spatial and nonspatial information, the current study developed a new experimental paradigm with novel environments that allowed for the placement of different objects in different positions within the environment. The results show that older adults have decreased performance in recognizing changes of the object position within the spatial context but no significant differences in recognizing changes in the identity of the object within the spatial context compared with younger adults. These findings suggest there may be potential age-related differences in the mechanisms underlying the representations of complex environments and furthermore, the integration of spatial and nonspatial information may be differentially processed relative to independent and isolated representations of object and spatial information.
... A number of behavioral (Lee & Chun, 2001;Li, Zhou, Shui, & Shen, 2015;Wood, 2011) and neurophysiological (Darling, Della Sala, Logie, & Cantagallo, 2006;Smith, Jonides, Koeppe, Awh, Schumacher, et al., 1995) studies showed that memory for objects and memory for locations have separate capacities. Moreover, there is also evidence that object-location memory can be a separate process from storing only objects or only locations (Postma & De Haan, 1996;Postma, Kessels, & van Asselen, 2008). Pertzov et al. (2012) suggested that objectlocation swaps play an important role in delay-related forgetting in VWM. ...
Visual working memory (VWM) is prone to interference from stored items competing for its limited capacity. Distinctiveness or similarity of the items is acknowledged to affect this competition, such that poor item distinctiveness causes a failure to discriminate between items sharing common features. In three experiments, we studied how the distinctiveness of studied real-world objects (i.e., whether the objects belong to the same or different basic categories) affects the retrieval of objects themselves (simple recognition) and object-location conjunctions (information about which object was where in a display, cued recall). In Experiments 1 and 2, we found that distinctiveness did not affect memories for objects or for locations, but low-distinctive objects were more frequently reported at “swapped” locations that originally contained other objects, showing object-location memory swaps. In Experiment 3 we found that observers swapped the location of a tested object with another object from the same category more frequently than with any of the objects from another category. This suggests that more similar studied objects cause more retrieval competition in object-location judgments than in simple recognition. Additionally, we discuss a possible role of categorical labeling of locations that can support object-location retrieval when the studied objects are highly distinct.
... We chose two screen arrangements, includes an early derivative by Pezdek andcolleagues (1983, 1986). We also examined later work in this line using similar experiments from Kessels, Postma & De Haan (1999) and Postma et al. (2004Postma et al. ( , 2008 Words were selected from two separate corpora. We took 8 words from the multilingual list of 10 words in the Common Objects Memory Test (COMT) (Kempler et al., 2009). ...
There is a presumption in human-computer interaction that laying out menus and most other material in neat rows and columns helps users get work done. The rule has been so implicit in the field of design as to allow for no debate. However, the idea that perfect collinearity benefits creates an advantage for both either search and or recall has rarely been tested. Drawing from separate branches of cognitive literature, we tested a minimal brainstorming interface with either aligned or eccentrically arranged layouts on 96 college students. Incidental exact recall of recently worked locations improved in the eccentric condition. And in both conditions there were frequent near-miss recall errors to neighboring aligned objects and groups of objects. Further analysis found only marginal performance advantages specifically for females with the eccentric design. However, NASA-TLX subjective measures showed that in eccentric, females reported higher performance, less effort, and yet also higher frustration; while males reported lower performance with about the same effort, and lower frustration.
... Kosslyn and colleagues (Kosslyn, 1987;Kosslyn et al., 1989) explicitly conceived visuo-spatial encoding as the combination of a categorical system providing coarse information for location, and a more precise coordinate system (see also Bruyer, Scailquin, & Coibion, 1997;Hellige & Michimata, 1989). This idea has been extended in recent models of memory for object locations (Postma et al., 2004(Postma et al., , 2008, and is supported by dissociations in neuropsychological studies and neuroimaging: coarse categorical and precise coordinate-based encoding appear to have different neural substrates (see Zimmermann & Eschen, 2017). ...
Despite the abundant literature on visuospatial short-term memory, researchers have devoted little attention to strategic processes: What procedures do subjects implement to memorize visuospatial material? Evidence for various strategies exists, but it is spread across a variety of fields. This integrative review of the literature brings together scattered evidence to provide an overview of strategic processes in visuospatial memory tasks. The diversity of strategies and their proposed operating mechanisms are reviewed and discussed. The evidence leads to proposing seven broad strategic processes used in visuospatial short-term memory, each with multiple variants. Strategies can vary across individuals, but the same subjects also appear to use multiple strategies depending on the perceptual features of to-be-remembered displays. These results point to a view of visuospatial strategies as a functional library of facilitatory processes on which subjects can draw to support visuospatial short-term memory performance. Implications are discussed for the difference between visual and spatial tasks, for the appropriate measurement of strategic behaviors, and for the interpretation of performance in visuospatial memory tasks.
... Object location memory is an important component of spatial cognition [44]. Research from neuroscience proposed three processing stages in object location memory: (a) object processing, (b) spatial-location processing, and (c) object to location binding [34]. What happens in the object processing stage is interesting to look at: for example, flowers of all kinds are called flowers, but are also recognized as having different visual features. ...
Understanding the effects of environmental features such as visual
realism on spatial memory can inform a human-centered design of
virtual environments. This paper investigates the effects of visual
realism on object location memory in virtual reality, taking account
of individual differences, gaze, and locomotion. Participants freely
explored two environments which varied in visual realism, and then
recalled the locations of objects by returning the misplaced objects
back to original locations. Overall, we did not find a significant relationship
between visual realism and object location memory. We
found, however, that individual differences such as spatial ability
and gender accounted for more variance than visual realism. Gaze
and locomotion analysis suggest that participants exhibited longer
gaze duration and more clustered movement patterns in the low
realism condition. Preliminary inspection further found that locomotion
hotspots coincided with objects that showed a significant
gaze time difference between high and low visual realism levels.
These results suggest that high visual realism still provides positive
spatial learning affordances but the effects are more intricate.
... The ability to recognise a place from different perspectives is crucial for everyday functioning. It requires remembering the locations of objects relative to each other or relative to the environment (Epstein, Harris, Stanley, & Kanwisher, 1999), and depends on the binding of the memory for object identity with the memory for its location (Postma, Kessels, & van Asselen, 2008;Waller, 2006). The quality of such spatial representations depends on the resolution with which spatial information is encoded (Cowell, Barense, & Sadil, 2019;Ekstrom & Yonelinas, 2020). ...
Successful navigation requires memorising and recognising the locations of objects across different perspectives. Although these abilities rely on hippocampal functioning, which is susceptible to degeneration in older adults, little is known about the effects of ageing on encoding and response strategies that are used to recognise spatial configurations. To investigate this, we asked young and older participants to encode the locations of objects in a virtual room shown as a picture on a computer screen. Participants were then shown a second picture of the same room taken from the same (0°) or a different perspective (45° or 135°) and had to judge whether the objects occupied the same or different locations. Overall, older adults had greater difficulty with the task than younger adults although the introduction of a perspective shift between encoding and testing impaired performance in both age groups. Diffusion modelling revealed that older adults adopted a more conservative response strategy, while the analysis of gaze patterns showed an age-related shift in visual-encoding strategies with older adults attending to more information when memorising the positions of objects in space. Overall, results suggest that ageing is associated with declines in spatial processing abilities, with older individuals shifting towards a more conservative decision style and relying more on encoding target object positions using room-based cues compared to younger adults, who focus more on encoding the spatial relationships among object clusters.
... With these cognitive processes in mind, it is not surprising that the neural substrates implicated in OLLM include the hippocampus and medial temporal lobes (Schiavetto, Köhler, Grady, Winocur & Moscovitch, 2002), as well as the prefrontal-parietal pathways (Milner, Johnsrude, & Crane, 1997;Sommer, Rose, Gläscher, Wolbers & Büchel, 2005). These structures and functional pathways may be involved when binding objects to locations and processing the coordinate locations of objects as we navigate through everyday activities (Postma, Kessels, & van Asselen, 2008). (MMSE; Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975) score < 24 or who reported diagnoses of confounding psychiatric (e.g., bipolar disorder) or neurological (e.g., dementia, mild cognitive impairment) conditions were excluded. ...
Objective:
Object location learning and memory may be important for older adults to successfully complete some everyday activities.
Method:
This cross-sectional, correlational study investigated the ecological relevance of the Location Learning Test-Revised (LLT-R) in 195 community-dwelling, older adults in Western Australia. The LLT-R assesses object location learning and memory for everyday objects over five learning trials and after a 30-min delay. Knowledgeable informants provided structured ratings of participants' activities of daily living and memory symptoms.
Results:
A greater number of errors on LLT-R total learning trials were associated with mild problems in activities of daily living (particularly in travel and household domains), but not with memory symptoms. The LLT-R's association with activities of daily living was accompanied by a small-to-medium effect size and was not better explained by demographics, global cognitive functioning, mood, or chronic medical conditions.
Conclusions:
Findings provide some support for the ecological relevance of the LLT-R among older community-dwelling adults and suggest that object location learning may play a role in some everyday functioning problems that accompany typical aging.
... Here again, there is clear evidence for performance improvements from the preschool to the late adolescent period, suggesting that children may be better able to compensate for their spatial-processing deficits than adults with comparable injury. Studies of adults suggest that LH injury interferes with categorical processing of spatial locations, while RH injury interferes with coordinate processing (Laeng, 1994;Palermo et al., 2008;Postma et al., 2008). Very similar patterns of results have been reported for children with PS. ...
This chapter focuses on the development of visuospatial processes mediated by the two primary visual pathways, the ventral “what” stream and the dorsal “where/how” stream. The introduction summarizes data from adults supporting the major functional distinctions of the two streams. Next, typical profiles of functional development for the ventral and dorsal visual streams are summarized. That is followed by a consideration of the relative developmental trajectories for the two streams. The final section examines the impact of neurodevelopmental disorders on visuospatial functioning, including the effects of frank neural insult as well as the effects of specific genetic abnormalities.
... Moreover, as remembering word pairs or completing word stems bears little resemblance to everyday life demands, we adopted a more ecologically valid approach, that is, by employing a visuospatial learning task in which participants had to search for objects at different locations and remember these for later use, processes that are also highly relevant for everyday functioning (e.g. enabling us to recall where we have stored our wallet, keys, or glasses) [17]. We hypothesized that YA would perform better after EL compared to TEL, but that error frequency would not influence recall performance in this group, thus replicating previous findings in YA [16]. ...
Background
Healthy aging is accompanied by a decline in learning ability and memory capacity. One widely-studied method to improve learning outcome is by reducing the occurrence of errors during learning (errorless learning; EL). However, there is also evidence that committing errors during learning (trial-and-error learning; TEL) may benefit memory performance. We argue that these inconsistent findings could be driven by a lack of control over the error frequency in traditional EL and TEL paradigms.AimThis study employed a spatial learning task to study EL and TEL and to determine the impact of error frequency on memory recall in healthy older adults (OA; N = 68) and young adults (YA; N = 60).Method
Four groups of participants (YA-EL, YA-TEL, OA-EL, OA-TEL) were instructed to first place and memorize the locations of everyday objects in a chest of drawers presented on a computer screen, and in whom memory recall performance was later tested. In the TEL condition, the amount of errors made before the correct drawer was ‘found’ was predetermined, varying from 0 to 5. During the EL condition, every first attempt was correct (i.e., no errors were made).ResultsWe found better overall performance in YA compared to OA and a beneficial effect of EL in both age groups. However, the amount of errors committed during learning did not influence accuracy of memory recall.Conclusion
Our results indicate that elimination of errors during learning can benefit memory performance in both YA and OA compared to TEL.
... Perceiving an object in the world is an experience defined in space and time, and stored in memory with this contextual information. Memory for object-location associations has been extensively studied in the spatial cognition literature (Eichenbaum, 2017;Epstein et al., 2017;Manns & Eichenbaum, 2009;Postma et al., 2008), but little is known about the interplay between subjective aspects of experience and spatial representation. We here investigated how aesthetic experience of an object affects the representation of that object's spatial location. ...
Memory for object location has been extensively studied, but little is known about how subjective evaluation of objects may influence spatial representation. We investigated how aesthetic experience could incidentally modulate memory of location. 96 participants (86 tested at science festivals, 10 at the laboratory) visited a virtual museum, not knowing they would be tested on spatial memory. Afterwards, they reported how much they liked each painting, and located it on the museum map. Participants remembered better the location of paintings that created strong aesthetic experiences, whether positive or negative, suggesting an arousal effect. Liking a painting specifically increased the ability to recall on which wall a painting was hung. Since recalling the wall requires recalling heading orientation, this finding suggests positive aesthetic experience is associated with using first-person perspective in spatial representation. Aesthetic experience has thus an incidental impact on spatial representations. These results may have implications for museum design.
... Considering the resolution limits of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging approaches, we cannot speak to the underlying inhibitory or excitatory nature of the connections involved. The exclusively right hemisphere subnetwork related to faster response times is consistent with a right hemisphere bias for spatial encoding and retrieval (89,90) and extends reports of striatum, caudate nucleus (91), and amygdala (92) involvement in memory processes to the anatomical subnetwork level. This complex subnetwork relationship did not hold for episodic or short-term memory and did not explain deficits in these forms of memory in BD. ...
Background:
Graph theory applied to brain networks is an emerging approach to understanding the brain's topological associations with human cognitive ability. Despite well-documented cognitive impairments in bipolar disorder (BD) and recent reports of altered anatomical network organization, the association between connectivity and cognitive impairments in BD remains unclear.
Methods:
We examined the role of anatomical network connectivity derived from T1- and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in impaired cognitive performance in individuals with BD (n = 32) compared with healthy control individuals (n = 38). Fractional anisotropy- and number of streamlines-weighted anatomical brain networks were generated by mapping constrained spherical deconvolution-reconstructed white matter among 86 cortical/subcortical bilateral brain regions delineated in the individual's own coordinate space. Intelligence and executive function were investigated as distributed functions using measures of global, rich-club, and interhemispheric connectivity, while memory and social cognition were examined in relation to subnetwork connectivity.
Results:
Lower executive functioning related to higher global clustering coefficient in participants with BD, and lower IQ performance may present with a differential relationship between global and interhemispheric efficiency in individuals with BD relative to control individuals. Spatial recognition memory accuracy and response times were similar between diagnostic groups and associated with basal ganglia and thalamus interconnectivity and connectivity within extended anatomical subnetworks in all participants. No anatomical subnetworks related to episodic memory, short-term memory, or social cognition generally or differently in BD.
Conclusions:
Results demonstrate selective influence of subnetwork patterns of connectivity in underlying cognitive performance generally and abnormal global topology underlying discrete cognitive impairments in BD.
... First, the object-location binding problem is a separate problem from feature binding (Treisman, 1996) , in that -objects and locations are processed to some extent via two separate pathways, ventral and dorsal (Haxby, et al., 1991;Mishkin & Ungerleider, 1982;Wilson, O'Scalaidhe & Goldman-Rakic, 1993). Thus, objectlocation binding is also a separate process from storing objects and locations (Postma & De Haan, 1996;Postma, Kessels, & van Asselen, 2008), so it is possible that location swaps did not influence binding of the features underlying state and exemplar discrimination. According to our results, it is possible that object-location binding could happen after feature binding, which is consistent with "object-file" theories (Hollingworth & Rasmussen, 2010; and with the general invariance of location tracking (e.g., in multiple object tracking) to feature information (Flombaum, Scholl & Santos, 2009;Pylyshyn, 2000) Another explanation is discussed by Utochkin and Brady (2020). ...
When storing multiple objects in visual working memory, observers sometimes misattribute perceived features to incorrect locations or objects. These misattributions are called binding errors (or swaps) and have been previously demonstrated mostly in simple objects whose features are easy to encode independently and arbitrarily chosen, like colors and orientations. Here, we tested whether similar swaps can occur with real-world objects, where the connection between features is meaningful rather than arbitrary. In Experiments 1 and 2, observers were simultaneously shown four items from two object categories. Within a category, the two exemplars could be presented in either the same or different states (e.g., open/closed; full/empty). After a delay, both exemplars from one of the categories were probed, and participants had to recognize which exemplar went with which state. We found good memory for state information and exemplar information on their own, but a significant memory decrement for exemplar-state combinations, suggesting that binding was difficult for observers and “swap” errors occurred even for meaningful real-world objects. In Experiment 3, we used the same tasks, but on half of the trials, the locations of the exemplars were swapped at test. We found that participants ascribed incorrect states to exemplars more frequently when the locations of exemplars were swapped. We concluded that the internal features of real-world objects are not perfectly bound in working memory, and location updates impair the object representation. Overall, we provide evidence that even real-world objects are not stored in an entirely unitized format in working memory.
... Attention to the flexible expression of relational memory, together with the development of novel paradigms, methods, and measures to assess relational memory representations has also revealed the critical role relational memory plays in the dynamic and adaptive use of memory and in flexible cognition and goal-directed behavior more broadly (Rubin, Watson, Duff, & Cohen, 2014). Indeed, building on a large body of work on the nature spatial memory in healthy individuals and spatial memory deficits following different forms of neurological injury (Kessels, de Haan, Kappelle, & Postma, 2002;Postma, Kessels, & van Asselen, 2008;Postma, Morel, Slot, Oudman, & Kessels, 2018), our group has been actively involved in the development of new experimental tasks that directly test the relational binding and flexibility of hippocampal-dependent representations permitting the detection of relational memory deficits that may not be routinely captured with traditional, standardized assessments of declarative memory (i.e., those that emphasize encoding and subsequent retrieval via recalling verbatim word lists or producing exact replication of figures). ...
Introduction: Relational memory is the ability to bind arbitrary relations between elements of experience into durable representations and the flexible expression of these representations. It is well known that individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) have declarative memory impairments, but less is known about how TBI affects relational memory binding, the deficit at the heart of declarative, or relational, memory impairment. The aim of the current study is to examine such deficits.
Method: We used a spatial reconstruction task (SRT) with 29 individuals with TBI and 23 normal comparison (NC) participants to investigate four different types of spatial relations: (A) identity-location relations, i.e., the relationship between a specific item and its known location; (B) item–item relations, or the relationship between one item and another; (C) item–display relations, or the relationship between an item and its position in the display; and (D) compound–item relations, i.e., relations that involve combinations of A, B, and C.
Results: Our data revealed that individuals with TBI showed impairments in learning identity–location relations and increased compound errors compared to NCs. We also found evidence that when item identity is disregarded, individuals with TBI do not perform differently from NCs. An exploratory analysis revealed that while relational memory performance was significantly correlated with scores on the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), more participants with TBI exhibited impairment on the SRT than of the CVLT.
Conclusions: Our findings show that relational memory is impaired following TBI, and provide preliminary evidence for an easy-to-administer task with increased sensitivity to memory impairment.
... The ability of a stimulus to retrieve the representation of another absent stimulus via an associative or causal link forms the basis of causal cognition (Blaisdell, 2009;, episodic memory (Clayton & Dickinson, 1998;Crystal, 2009), perceptual memory (Barsalou, 1999;Goldstone & Barsalou, 1998), representation of outcome quality (Balleine & Dickinson, 1998), perceptual binding (Postma, Kessels, & van Asselen, 2008), pattern completion (Fast, Biedermann, & Blaisdell, 2016;Fast & Blaisdell, 2011;Fast, Flesher, et al., 2016;Rudy & O'Reilly, 2001), and, some have argued, image and action (Fast, Biedermann, & Blaisdell, 2016;Holland, 1990). Mental imagery might also play a mediating role in a diverse range of behavioral phenomena in animals, such as mental time travel (Cheke & Clayton, 2010;Clayton, Bussey, Emery, & Dickinson, 2003), flexible use of prospective and retrospective coding (Cook, Brown, & Riley, 1985); prospective memory (Crystal, 2013;Wilson, Pizzo, & Crystal, 2013), and encoding of a cognitive map (Blaisdell 2009;Savastano & Miller, 1998;Wikenheiser & Redish, 2015). ...
When we open our eyes, we see a world filled with objects and events. Yet, due to occlusion of some objects by others, we only have partial perceptual access to the events that transpire around us. I discuss the body of research on mental imagery in animals. I first cover prior studies of mental rotation in pigeons and imagery using working memory procedures first developed for human studies. Next, I discuss the seminal work on a type of learning called mediated conditioning in rats. I then provide more in-depth coverage of work from my lab suggesting that rats can use imagery to fill in missing details of the world that are expected but hidden from perception. We have found that rats make use of an active expectation (i.e., an image) of a hidden visual event. I describe the behavioral and neurobiological studies investigating the use of a mental image, its theoretical basis, and its connections to current human cognitive neuroscience research on episodic memory, imagination, and mental simulations. Collectively, the reviewed literature provides insight into the mechanisms that mediate the flexible use of an image during ambiguous situations. I position this work in the broader scientific and philosophical context surrounding the concept of mental imagery in human and nonhuman animals.
This work presents a human memory augmentation system that uses augmented reality (AR), computer vision (CV), and artificial intelligence to replace the internal mental representation of objects in the environment with an external augmented representation. The system consists of two components: 1) an AR headset; and 2) a computing station. The AR headset runs an application that senses the indoor environment, sends data to the computing station for processing, receives the processed data, and updates the external representation of objects using a virtual 3-D object projected into the real environment in front of the user's eyes. The computing station performs CV-based indoor environment self-localization, object detection, and object-to-location binding using first-person view data received from the AR headset. We designed a behavioral study to evaluate the usability of the system. In a pilot study with 26 participants (12 females and 14 males), we investigated human performance in an experimental task that involved remembering the positions of objects in a physical space and displaying the positions of the learned objects on the 2-D map of the space. We conducted the studies under two conditions—that is, with and without using the AR system. We investigated the usability of the system, subjective workload, and performance variables under both conditions. The results showed that the AR-based augmentation of the mental representation of objects indoors reduced cognitive load and increased performance accuracy.
Ошибки объектно-пространственного связывания – правильное запоминание информации об объектах, но ошибочное приписывание этим объектам пространственного расположения – являются типичными для повседневных задач, требующих привлечения ресурсов зрительной рабочей памяти. Изучению ошибок такого рода посвящено большое количество исследований, однако, не ясно, что именно происходит с объектно-пространственным связыванием в реалистичных сценах, где существуют особые законы и правила? Мы изучили данный вопрос в эксперименте, в котором респонденты запоминали положения объектов в реалистичных сценах. В половине проб целевой объект был размещен согласно правилам сцены, во второй половине проб расположение целевого объекта не соответствовало правилам сцены. Респонденты лучше запоминали объекты, расположенные по правилам сцены. Мы предполагаем, что грамматика сцены усиливает объектно-пространственное связывание при помощи направленного внимания.
Spatial memory impairments are observed in people with Huntington's disease (HD), however, the domain of spatial memory has received little focus when characterizing the cognitive phenotype of HD. Spatial memory is traditionally thought to be a hippocampal‐dependent function, while the neuropathology of HD centers on the striatum. Alongside spatial memory deficits in HD, recent neurocognitive theories suggest that a larger brain network is involved, including the striatum. We examined the relationship between hippocampal and striatal volumes and spatial memory in 36 HD gene expansion carriers, including premanifest (n = 24) and early manifest HD (n = 12), and 32 matched healthy controls. We assessed spatial memory with Paired Associates Learning, Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure Test, and the Virtual House task, which assesses three components of spatial memory: navigation, object location, and plan drawing. Caudate nucleus, putamen, and hippocampal volumes were manually segmented on T1‐weighted MR images. As expected, caudate nucleus and putamen volumes were significantly smaller in the HD group compared to controls, with manifest HD having more severe atrophy than the premanifest HD group. Hippocampal volumes did not differ significantly between HD and control groups. Nonetheless, on average, the HD group performed significantly worse than controls across all spatial memory tasks. The spatial memory components of object location and recall of figural and topographical drawings were associated with striatal and hippocampal volumes in the HD cohort. We provide a case to include spatial memory impairments in the cognitive phenotype of HD, and extend the neurocognitive picture of HD beyond its primary pathology within the striatum. Spatial memory impairments in people with Huntington's disease (HD) were related to volumes of the caudate nucleus, putamen, and hippocampus. We suggest that spatial memory impairments should be included in the cognitive phenotype of HD.
The basis of visual short-term memory (VSTM) impairments in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains unclear. Research suggests that eye movements may serve as indirect surrogates to investigate VSTM. Yet, investigations in preclinical populations are lacking. Fifty-two individuals from a familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD) cohort (9 symptomatic carriers, 17 presymptomatic carriers and 26 controls) completed the “Object-localisation” VSTM task while an eye-tracker recorded eye movements during the stimulus presentation. VSTM function and oculomotor performance were compared between groups and their association during encoding investigated. Compared to controls, symptomatic FAD carriers showed eye movement patterns suggestive of an ineffective encoding and presymptomatic FAD carriers within 6 years of their expected age at symptom onset, were more reliant on the stimuli fixation time to achieve accuracy in the localisation of the target. Consequently, for shorter fixation times on the stimuli, presymptomatic carriers were less accurate at localising the target than controls. By contrast, the only deficits detected on behavioural VSTM function was in symptomatic individuals. Our findings provide novel evidence that encoding processes may be vulnerable and weakened in presymptomatic FAD carriers, most prominently for spatial memory, suggesting a possible explanation for the subtle VSTM impairments observed in the preclinical stages of AD.
Ageing is associated with declines in spatial memory, however, the source of these deficits remains unclear. Here we used eye-tracking to investigate age-related differences in spatial encoding strategies and the cognitive processes underlying the age-related deficits in spatial memory tasks. To do so we asked young and older participants to encode the locations of objects in a virtual room shown as a picture on a computer screen. The availability and utility of room-based landmarks were manipulated by removing landmarks, presenting identical landmarks rendering them uninformative, or by presenting unique landmarks that could be used to encode object locations. In the test phase, participants viewed a second picture of the same room taken from the same (0°) or a different perspective (30°) and judged whether the objects occupied the same or different locations in the room. We found that the introduction of a perspective shift and swapping of objects between encoding and testing impaired performance in both age groups. Furthermore, our results revealed that although older adults performed the task as well as younger participants, they relied on different visual encoding strategies to solve the task. Specifically, gaze analysis revealed that older adults showed a greater preference towards a more categorical encoding strategy in which they formed relationships between objects and landmarks.
When storing multiple objects in visual working memory, observers sometimes misattribute perceived features to incorrect locations or objects. These misattributions are called binding errors (or swaps) and have been previously demonstrated mostly in simple objects whose features are easy to encode independently and arbitrarily chosen, like colors and orientations. Here, we tested whether similar swaps can occur with real-world objects, where the connection between features is meaningful rather than arbitrary. In Experiments 1 and 2, observers were simultaneously shown four items from two object categories. Within a category, the two exemplars could be presented in either the same or different states (e.g., open/closed; full/empty). After a delay, both exemplars from one of the categories were probed, and participants had to recognize which exemplar went with which state. We found good memory for state information and exemplar information on their own, but a significant memory decrement for exemplar-state combinations, suggesting that binding was difficult for observers and swap errors occurred even for meaningful real-world objects. In Experiment 3, we used the same task, but in one-half of the trials, the locations of the exemplars were swapped at test. We found that there are more errors in general when the locations of exemplars were swapped. We concluded that the internal features of real-world objects are not perfectly bound in working memory, and location updates impair object and feature representations. Overall, we provide evidence that even real-world objects are not stored in an entirely unitized format in working memory.
While sleep, including naps, has been shown to benefit many cognitive functions in adults, understanding whether naps are beneficial in early childhood has important translational implications. Here we review recent studies which, collectively, suggest that naps indeed benefit cognition at this age. Specifically, declarative, motor, and emotional memory are better if a nap follows learning. Executive functions such as attention and emotion processing are likewise better following sleep. However, a better understanding of the mechanism supporting these benefits and the generalizability to other forms of learning and executive functions is necessary. It is important for future research to extend such findings, which may promote the use of naps to support early education, particularly for learning-impaired children.
Long-term memory (LTM) can be acquired without conscious awareness resulting in implicit memory. However, lack of awareness does not necessarily mean fully independent of working memory (WM). In the current study, 6-8-year-olds, 11-13-year-olds, and young adults completed two implicit memory tasks while undertaking either a concurrent visual or a concurrent spatial working memory task. All three groups demonstrated significant implicit memory, showing that limited working memory resources do not limit the acquisition of implicit memory even for children. Additionally, the magnitudes of implicit LTM did not vary as a function of either age or modality of the concurrent task. Furthermore, correlational analyses established the independence of WM and implicit LTM in the spatial domain, although the evidence for independence was less conclusive in the visual domain. Lastly, there was no evidence that presenting concurrent WM reduced implicit LTM for children or adults. Together, our study suggested that the acquisition of implicit LTM was not constrained by limited WM capacity across ages and modalities.
Background:
Associative object-location memory (OLM) is known to decline even in normal aging, and this process is accelerated in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Given the lack of curative treatment for Alzheimer's disease, activating cognitive resources during its preclinical phase might prevent progression to dementia.).
Objective:
To evaluate the effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (atDCS) combined with an associative episodic memory training on OLM in MCI patients and in healthy elderly (HE).
Methods:
In a single-blind cross-over design, 16 MCI patients and 32 HE underwent a 3-day visuospatial OLM training paired with either 20 min or 30 s (sham) atDCS (1 mA, right temporoparietal cortex). Effects on immediate (training success) and long-term memory (1-month) were investigated by conducting Mixed Model analyses. In addition, the impact of combined intervention on within-session (online) and on between-session (offline) performance were explored.
Results:
OLM training+atDCS enhanced training success only in MCI patients, but not HE (difference n.s.). Relative performance gain was similar in MCI patients compared to HE under atDCS. No beneficial effect was found after 1 month. Exploratory analyses suggested a positive impact for online, but a negative effect on offline performance in MCI patients. In both groups, exploratory post-hoc analyses indicated an association between initially low-performers and greater benefit from atDCS.
Conclusion:
Cognitive training in MCI may be enhanced by atDCS, but further delineation of the impact of current brain state, as well as temporal characteristics of multi-session atDCS-training application, may be needed to induce longer-lasting effects.
We often rely on our sense of vision for understanding the spatial location of objects around us. If vision cannot be used, one must rely on other senses, such as hearing and touch, in order to build spatial representations. Previous work has found evidence of a leftward spatial bias in visual and tactile tasks. In this study, we sought evidence of this leftward bias in a non-visual haptic object location memory task and assessed the influence of a task-irrelevant sound. In Experiment 1, blindfolded right-handed sighted participants used their non-dominant hand to haptically locate an object on the table, then used their dominant hand to place the object back in its original location. During placement, participants either heard nothing (no-sound condition) or a task-irrelevant repeating tone to the left, right, or front of the room. The results showed that participants exhibited a leftward placement bias on no-sound trials. On sound trials, this leftward bias was corrected; placements were faster and more accurate (regardless of the direction of the sound). One explanation for the leftward bias could be that participants were overcompensating their reach with the right hand during placement. Experiment 2 tested this explanation by switching the hands used for exploration and placement, but found similar results as Experiment 1. A third Experiment found evidence supporting the explanation that sound corrects the leftward bias by heightening attention. Together, these findings show that sound, even if task-irrelevant and semantically unrelated, can correct one’s tendency to place objects too far to the left.
We used positron emission tomography (PET) to answer the following question: Is working memory a unitary storage system, or does it instead include different storage buffers for different kinds of information? In Experiment 1, PET measures were taken while subjects engaged in either a spatial-memory task (retain the position of three dots for 3 sec) or an object-memory task (retain the identity of two objects for 3 sec). The results manifested a striking double dissociation, as the spatial task activated only right-hemisphere regions, whereas the object task activated primarily left-hemisphere regions. The spatial (right-hemisphere) regions included occipital, parietal, and prefrontal areas, while the object (left-hemisphere) regions included inferotemporal and parietal areas. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 except that the stimuli and trial events were identical for the spatial and object tasks; whether spatial or object memory was required was manipulated by instructions. The PET results once more showed a double dissociation, as the spatial task activated primarily right-hemisphere regions (again including occipital, parietal and prefrontal areas), whereas the object task activated only left-hemisphere regions (again including inferotemporal and parietal areas). Experiment 3 was a strictly behavioral study, which produced another double dissociation. It used the same tasks as Experiment 2, and showed that a variation in spatial similarity affected performance in the spatial but not the object task, whereas a variation in shape similarity affected performance in the object but not the spatial task. Taken together, the results of the three experiments clearly imply that different working-memory buffers are used for storing spatial and object information.
The degree to which 2 environmental variables, familiarity and differentiation, affect the ability of children to recall the spatial location of an event was assessed in 3 experiments with a total of 72 3-5 yr old preschoolers and 16 7-8 yr olds. In each study Ss were taken individually on strolls through a variety of environments, were exposed to an event, and later were asked to recall where that event had occurred. This procedure was followed on 1 occasion without the S's foreknowledge that such a request would be made, and on a 2nd occasion with foreknowledge of the S. Differentiation and foreknowledge both had a significant effect on the ability of preschool Ss to perform in this task, but familiarity did not. 8-yr-olds were significantly more accurate than preschoolers in an undifferentiated environment but not in a differentiated environment. Results support Piaget's theory that the development of spatial representation proceeds from dependence on topological spatial relations to incorporation of projective and Euclidean concepts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Evaluated the claim that memory for spatial information is automatic. 46 18–35 yr olds and 49 51–80 yr olds studied a map containing 12 structures. Half the Ss in each age group were asked to remember both the structures and their locations (intentional learning), and the remaining half were led to believe they would be tested only on the structures (incidental learning). Both age and test expectations affected memory for the locations of structures, with older Ss and Ss in the incidental groups performing more poorly. It is concluded that memory for spatial location is not automatic. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Proposes a framework for the conceptualization of a broad range of memory phenomena that integrates research on memory performance in young children, the elderly, and individuals under stress with research on memory performance in normal college students. One basic assumption is that encoding operations vary in their attentional requirements. Operations that drain minimal energy from limited-capacity attentional mechanisms are called automatic. Automatic operations function at a constant level under all circumstances, occur without intention, and do not benefit from practice. Effortful operations, such as rehearsal and elaborative mnemonic activities, require considerable capacity, interfere with other cognitive activities also requiring capacity, are initiated intentionally, and show benefits from practice. A 2nd assumption is that attentional capacity varies both within and among individuals. Depression, high arousal levels, and old age are variables thought to reduce attentional capacity. The conjunction of the 2 assumptions of the framework yields the prediction that the aged and individuals under stress will show a decrease in performance only on tasks requiring effortful processing. Evidence from the literature on development, aging, depression, arousal, and normal memory is presented in support of the framework, and 4 experiments with 301 5–40 yr old Ss are described. (5½ p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Spatial memory is crucial to our daily lives and in part strongly depends on automatic, implicit memory processes. This study
investigates the neurocognitive basis of conscious and unconscious influences of object–location memory in amnesic patients
with Korsakoff’s syndrome (N = 23) and healthy controls (N = 18) using a process-dissociation procedure in a computerized spatial memory task. As expected, the patients performed substantially
worse on the conscious memory measures but showed even slightly stronger effects of unconscious influences than the controls.
Moreover, a delayed test administered after 1 week revealed a strong decline in conscious influences in the patients, while
unconscious influences were not affected. The presented results suggest that conscious and unconscious influences of spatial
memory can be clearly dissociated in Korsakoff’s syndrome.
Virtual reality (VR) and event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging were used to study memory for the spatial context of controlled but lifelike events. Subjects received a set of objects from two different people in two different places within a VR environment. Memory for the objects, and for where and from whom they were received was tested by putting the subject back into a place in the company of a person and giving a paired forced choice of objects. In four conditions objects had to be chosen according to different criteria: which was received in that place, which was received from that person, which object was recognized, and which object was widest. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed during testing to identify areas involved in retrieval of the spatial context of an event. A network of areas was identified consisting of a temporoparietal pathway running between the precuneus and parahippocampi via retrosplenial cortex and the parieto-occipital sulcus, left hippocampus, bilateral posterior parietal, dorsolateral, ventrolateral and anterior prefrontal cortices, and the anterior cingulate. Of these areas the parahippocampal, right posterior parietal, and posteriodorsal medial parietal areas were specifically involved in retrieval of spatial context compared to retrieval of nonspatial context. The posterior activations are consistent with a model of long-term storage of allocentric representations in medial temporal regions with translation to body-centered and head-centered representations computed in right posterior parietal cortex and buffered in the temporoparietal pathway so as to provide an imageable representation in the precuneus. Prefrontal activations are consistent with strategic retrieval processes, including those required to overcome the interference between the highly similar events.
The involvement of the medial temporal-lobe region in allocentric mapping of the environment has been observed in human lesion and functional imaging work. Cognitive models of environmental learning ascribe a key role to salient landmarks in representing large-scale space. In the present experiments we examined the neural substrates of the topographical memory acquisition process when environmental landmarks were more specifically identifiable. Using positron emission tomography (PET), we measured regional cerebral blood flow changes while normal subjects explored and learned in a virtual reality environment. One experiment involved an environment containing salient objects and textures that could be used to discriminate different rooms. Another experiment involved a plain empty environment in which rooms were distinguishable only by their shape. Learning in both cases activated a network of bilateral occipital, medial parietal, and occipitotemporal regions. The presence of salient objects and textures in an environment additionally resulted in increased activity in the right parahippocampal gyrus. This region was not activated during exploration of the empty environment. These findings suggest that encoding of salient objects into a representation of large-scale space is a critical factor in instigating parahippocampal involvement in topographical memory formation in humans and accords with previous studies implicating parahippocampal areas in the encoding of object location.
Two experiments studied recall of objects and their locations in an intentional-incidental learning paradigm. When studying spatial information, the usual incidental condition is not truly incidental, because subjects often deliberately use locations to help organize objects for recall. Therefore, a true incidental task was devised in which neither objects nor locations were expected to be recalled and for which explicit encoding of locations was irrelevant. There was only a small loss in recall of objects or their locations in a true incidental condition. It was concluded that a great deal of location information is automatically coded into long-term memory storage in the sense that active processing is not required. The data were contrasted with incidental processing of other attributes, such as color. Although adults performed better than children, there were no age-related interactions, indicating similarity of functioning at all ages studied.
This paper explores from a neuropsychological perspective the relation between the meanings of English locative prepositions (e.g., in, on, above, below) and the kinds of representations that are used for many visuospatial processes such as recognising, drawing, and constructing spatially complex objects. One possibility that has been proposed by some psycholinguists is that the meanings of prepositions are the same as the representations used in these other processes. An alternative possibility, which has been proposed by a different group of researchers, is that the relation is more distant such that the meanings of prepositions constitute language-specific semantic structures that are distinct from the representations that underlie many visuospatial abilities. Here we report a detailed assessment of the linguistic as well as perceptual and cognitive representations of spatial relationships in two brain-damaged subjects. Four tests were administered that involve both the production and comprehension of English locative prepositions. In addition, four standardised neuropsychological tests that probe high-level nonlinguistic visuospatial perception and cognition were administered. Case 1 was significantly impaired on all of the preposition tests but was normal on all of the visuospatial tests. In striking contrast, Case 2 was normal on all of the preposition tests but was significantly impaired on all of the visuospatial tests. The subjects also had entirely different brain lesions: Case 1 had a left-hemisphere lesion in the frontoparietal region, and Case 2 had a right-hemisphere lesion in the frontoparietal and temporal regions. Together, the results constitute a "double dissociation," suggesting that the preposition tests and the visuospatial tests require cognitively and neurally distinct mechanisms that can be disrupted independently of each other. We interpret the data as supporting the second possibility described-namely, that the meanings of locative prepositions may be language-specific semantic structures that are separate from the mental representations underlying many other kinds of high-level nonlinguistic visuospatial abilities.
Results of 4 sets of neural network simulations support the distinction between categorical and coordinate spatial relations representations: (a) Networks that were split so that different hidden units contributed to each type of judgment performed better than unsplit networks; the reverse was observed when they made 2 coordinate judgments. (b) Both computations were more difficult when finer discriminations were required; this result mirrored findings with human Ss. (c) Networks with large, overlapping "receptive fields" performed the coordinate task better than did networks with small, less overlapping receptive fields, but vice versa for the categorical task; this suggests a possible basis for observed cerebral lateralization of the 2 kinds of processing. (d) The previously observed effect of stimulus contrast on this hemispheric asymmetry could reflect contributions of more neuronal input in high-contrast conditions.
Several researches have claimed that spatial location information is automatically encoded, a claim supported by studies testing several criteria for the identification of automatic processes. However, a careful look at these studies reveals that some have not used appropriate testing methodology, the results of others have not complied with the criteria, and some criteria have not been examined at all. This article includes four experiments in which five criteria for testing the automaticity of cognitive processes were examined. Results show that memory for spatial location information is influenced by intention, age of subjects, competing task loads, practice, strategy manipulations, and individual differences. These results generally hold for memory of absolute location and for relative location information. The reported results are at odds with the claim that memory for spatial location information is exclusively mediated by automatic encoding processes. The concept of automaticity and the appropriateness of the testing criteria are discussed in light of the current results and recent findings on other features of the environment claimed to be automatically encoded.
Hasher and Zacks (1979) claimed that spatial location information is automatically encoded. Evaluation of the empirical basis
for this claim, however, casts doubt on some of the evidence for the automaticity position. This evaluation led to four experiments
in which five criteria for testing the automaticity of cognitive processes were examined using a recognition task. Results
of these experiments clearly show thatrecognition memory for spatial location information is influenced by intention, age of subjects, competing task loads, practice, and individual
differences. The reported results, which extend those reported by Naveh-Benjamin (1987) for spatial locationrecall memory, are at odds with the claim that memory for spatial location information is exclusively mediated by automatic encoding processes.
The concept of automaticity and the appropriateness of the criteria suggested for testing the automaticity of cognitive processes
are discussed in light of the current results and recent findings on other features of the environment (e.g., frequency of
occurrence) previously claimed to be automatically encoded.
Visual recognition, navigation, tracking, and imagery are posited to share certain high-level processing subsystems. In the first part of this article, a theory of some of these subsystems is formulated. This theory is developed in light of an analysis of problems that must be solved by the visual system and the constraints on the solutions to these problems; computational, neurological, and behavioral constraints are considered. In the second part, inferences about perceptual subsystems are used to develop a theory of how mental images are generated. Support for this theory is adduced from studies of split-brain patients and a review of relevant neuropsychological findings. In the third part, a computational mechanism is developed to account for how visual function becomes lateralized in the brain; this mechanism is used to predict how the hypothesized processing subsystems become lateralized. In the fourth part, some critical tests of the theory of lateralization of perceptual processing subsystems are reported, and in the fifth part the theory is extended to account for the lateralization of image-transformation subsystems. In the sixth part, the theory is used to account for the almost ubiquitous variability (both between subjects and within subjects) evident in the neuropsychological literature on lateralization. Finally, in the concluding part of the article, the computational-neuropsychological approach is discussed and evaluated.
In recent years, the magnitude, consistency, and stability across time of cognitive sex differences have been questioned. The present study examined these issues in the context of spatial abilities. A meta-analysis of 286 effect sizes from a variety of spatial ability measures was conducted. Effect sizes were partitioned by the specific test used and by a number of variables related to the experimental procedure in order to achieve homogeneity. Results showed that sex differences are significant in several tests but that some intertest differences exist. Partial support was found for the notion that the magnitude of sex differences has decreased in recent years. Finally, it was found that the age of emergence of sex differences depends on the test used. Results are discussed with regard to their implications for the study of sex differences in spatial abilities.
Items located within an array were presented to alcoholic Korsakoff and nonalcoholic mixed-etiology amnesics and to alcoholic and normal controls. Recognition memory for the locations of items was tested after incidental and intentional encoding. When equated on item recognition, neither Korsakoff amnesics nor alcoholic controls benefited from intentional, relative to incidental, encoding instructions. Furthermore, Korsakoff amnesics showed neither disproportionately impaired incidental nor intentional location recognition memory relative to alcoholic controls. In contrast, mixed-etiology amnesics profited significantly from intentional location acquisition relative to incidental instructions, and were impaired somewhat in incidental, but not intentional, location memory relative to normal controls. We discuss these data in relation to Mayes' (1992) contextual memory deficit hypothesis and Hirst's (1982) automatic encoding deficit account, and propose an alternative framework in which the location memory deficit observed in mixed-etiology amnesics is interpreted as a disruption to the ability to bind item and location information.
Three experiments investigated assumptions of the process-dissociation procedure for separating consciously controlled and automatic influences of memory. Conditions that encouraged direct retrieval revealed process dissociations. Manipulating attention during study or manipulating study time affected recollection but left automatic influences of memory relatively invariant. However, paradoxical dissociations were found when conditions encouraged use of a generate-recognize strategy, violating assumptions underlying the estimation procedure. Use of subjective reports to gain estimates produced parallel results. Easily observed correlations are shown to be not useful for testing assumptions underlying the process-dissociation procedure. A multinomial model produced results that agree with those from the process-dissociation approach.
Three experiments are reported on short-term memory for object location. Stimulus displays containing different numbers and types of objects were presented for 30 seconds, after which subjects were required to relocate the various objects within the display, merely to reconstruct positions, or to assign objects correctly to an equal number of premarked positions. In all experiments half the trials were performed with concurrent articulatory suppression. The results support the hypothesis that two processes can be distinguished: one that underlies the construction of a positional map and one that assigns objects to positions. These processes are differentially affected by object numbers and articulatory suppression. This hypothesis is discussed in terms of Baddeley's (1986) working memory model and Kosslyn's (1987) distinction between ''categorical'' and ''coordinate'' spacial relations.
Earlier research on the automaticity of memory for spatial location was extended. A series of four-photograph sets were presented to subjects, who then attempted to relocate the photographs to their original locations on posters. Number of locations on the posters varied from 4, 9, or 16, and instructions were intentional or incidental. Memory for location decreased with increased matrix size. Instructions had no effect. The recognition of photographs was unaffected by these variables. No firm evidence for effortful processing of location memory was found.
Current research suggests that a memory trace is a record of the mental activity associated with an event, not a literal record of the event. Thus, more elaborate and effortful encoding is associated with better memory traces. Paradoxically, Hasher and Zacks′ (1979) theory holds that some information is encoded into long-term memory automatically—that is, effortlessly. However, tests of this theory have not assessed the durability of automatically encoded information for periods beyond a few minutes. We assessed memory of an effortfully encoded stimulus attribute, color, and of an automatically encoded attribute, spatial location. Intentional and incidental instructions did not differentially affect the encoding of these attributes, and both were remembered over a 24-h retention interval. It was concluded that automatically encoded information is encoded into long-term memory. The results suggest that color is also an attribute that may be encoded automatically.
Abstract Sixty patients with unilateral stroke (half with left hemisphere damage and half with right hemisphere damage) and a control group (N = 15) matched for age and educational level were tested in two experiments. In one experiment they were first shown, on each trial, a sample drawing depicting one or more objects. Following a short delay, they were asked to identify the drawing when it was paired with a drawing in which the same object(s) was transformed in categorical or coordinate spatial relations. In the other experiment, the same subjects first were shown, on each trial, a sample drawing. They then judged which of two variants (each in one type of spatial relation) looked more similar to the sample drawing. Typically, patients with left-sided stroke mistakenly identified the categorical transformation for the sample drawing in the first task; in the second task, they judged the categorical transformation as more similar to the sample drawing. Patients with right-sided stroke mistakenly identified the coordinate transformations for the sample drawing in the first task, and, in the second task, typically judged the drawings transformed along coordinate spatial relations as more similar to the sample drawing. These findings provide evidence for complementary lateralization of the two types of spatial perception. It can therefore be inferred that separate functional subsystems process the two types of spatial relations.
Participants named objects presented in the left or right visual field during a test phase, after viewing centrally presented same-exemplar objects, different-exemplar objects, and words that name objects during an initial encoding phase. In two experiments, repetition priming was exemplar-abstract yet visual when test objects were presented directly to the left cerebral hemisphere, but exemplar-specific when test objects were presented directly to the right cerebral hemisphere, contrary to predictions from single-system theories of object recognition. In two other experiments, stimulus degradation during encoding and task demands during test modulated these results in predicted ways. The results support the theory that dissociable neural subsystems operate in parallel (not in sequence) to underlie visual object recognition: An abstract-category subsystem operates more effectively than a specific-exemplar subsystem in the left hemisphere, and a specific-exemplar subsystem operates more effectively than an abstract-category subsystem in the right hemisphere.
Declarative memory depends on the hippocampus and related medial temporal lobe and diencephalic structures. Declarative memory has usually been found to be available to conscious recollection. A recent study (Chun and Phelps, Nat Neurosci 1999;2:844–847) found that damage to the medial temporal lobe (including the hippocampus) impaired performance on a perceptual learning task, yet the learning was accomplished in the absence of memory for the stimuli. This finding raised the possibility that some hippocampus-dependent tasks may be inaccessible to awareness and may be performed without evoking conscious memory processes. Using the same task, we show that when damage is confined largely to the hippocampal formation, perceptual learning is intact. Thus, the available data suggest that damage limited to the hippocampal formation does not impair nonconscious (nondeclarative) memory. Further, the data do not contradict the idea that hippocampus-dependent memory is accessible to conscious recollection. Finally, perceptual learning was impaired in patients, with extensive damage to the medial temporal lobe and with additional variable damage to lateral temporal cortex. Hippocampus 2001;11:776–782. Published 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
A virtual reality environment was used to test memory performance for simulated “real-world” spatial and episodic information in a 22-year-old male, Jon, who has selective bilateral hippocampal pathology caused by perinatal anoxia. He was allowed to explore a large-scale virtual reality town and was then tested on his memory for spatial layout and for episodes experienced. Topographical memory was tested by assessing his ability to navigate, recognize previously visited locations, and draw maps of the town. Episodic memory was assessed by testing the retrieval of simulated events which consisted of collecting objects from characters while following a route through the virtual town. Memory for the identity of objects, as well as for where they were collected, from whom, and in what order, was also tested. While the first task tapped simple recognition memory, the latter three tested memory for context. Jon was impaired on all topographical tasks and on his recall of the context-dependent questions. However, his recognition of objects from the virtual town, and of “topographical” scenes (as evaluated by standard neuropsychological tests), was not impaired. These findings are consistent with the view that the hippocampus is involved in navigation, recall of long term allocentric spatial information and context-dependent episodic memory, but not visual pattern matching. Hippocampus 2001;11:715–725. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
This paper begins by considering problems that have plagued investigations of automatic or unconscious influences of perception and memory. A process dissociation procedure that provides an escape from those problems is introduced. The process dissociation procedure separates the contributions of different types of processes to performance of a task, rather than equating processes with tasks. Using that procedure, I provide new evidence in favor of a two-factor theory of recognition memory; one factor relies on automatic processes and the other relies on intentional processes. Recollection (an intentional use of memory) is hampered when attention is divided, rather than full, at the time of test. In contrast, the use of familiarity as a basis for recognition memory judgments (an automatic use of memory) is shown to be invariant across full versus divided attention, manipulated at test. Process dissociation procedures provide a general framework for separating automatic from intentional forms of processing in a variety of domains; including perception, memory, and thought.
Long-term memory (LTM) differences between retarded and nonretarded persons were assessed. These persons studied a picture book following semantic or nonsemantic encoding instructions, and recognition tests for the pictures (items) and their locations were given immediately, 1 day, and 1 week later. Semantic encoding instructions facilitated memory for items in retarded, but not in nonretarded persons. Under these conditions, the two groups were equally accurate in LTM for items. However, under nonsemantic encoding instructions, retarded subjects and poorer memory for items than did nonretarded subjects. Memory for the location of an item was not affected by encoding instructions or intelligence level. A comparison between attribute and item memory showed that LTM for an attribute is forgotten more rapidly than memory for the item itself.
Memory for location of a dot inside a circle was investigated with the circle in the center of a computer screen (Experiment 1) or with the circle presented in either the left or the right visual field (Experiment 2). In both experiments, as in Huttenlocher, Hedges, and Duncan's (1991) study, the task was to relocate the dot by marking the remembered location. When errors in angular and radial estimates were considered separately, it was found that, in both experiments, the angular locations of estimates of the dots' positions regressed toward different locations inside each quadrant of the circle; the radial locations of the estimates of dots' positions tended to regress toward locations near the circumference. These variations in the direction of bias appeared to reflect a general shift of estimates toward the upper left arc of the circle. The second experiment replicated the preceding effects but also revealed that the regressions within quadrants of angular values were stronger after right visual field that after left visual field presentations. We interpret the dissociation between visual fields as evidence that memory for categorical spatial relations (Kosslyn, 1987) is more dependent on left-hemisphere than on right-hemisphere processing.
Visual object recognition was investigated in a group of eighty-one patients with right- or left-hemisphere lesions. Two tasks were used, one maximizing perceptual categorization by physical identity, the other maximizing semantic categorization by functional identity. The right-hemisphere group showed impairment on the perceptual categorization task and the left-hemisphere group were impaired on the semantic categorization task. The findings are discussed in terms of categorical stages of object recognition. A tentative model of their cerebral organization is suggested.
Recall of the spatial location of objects in 4-object arrays was studied with 5, 8, 12–13, and 18–23 yr-old subjects, using pictorial materials. Recall of location was good in the youngest subjects (about 50% correct of 40 objects), and improved with increasing age in much the same way as recall of item information. Presenting related objects in a common context induced a uniform “recall strategy” and led to much better recall at all age levels than presenting objects as unrelated items, but did not differentially improve location recall. A description of the recall test prior to learning improved both item and location recall in the oldest age groups when related, but not when unrelated objects were used. Instructions to attend to the location of objects did not affect location recall: intentional and incidental learning of location yielded similar results at all age levels.
A model of category effects on reports from memory is presented. The model holds that stimuli are represented at 2 levels of detail: a fine-grain value and a category. When memory is inexact but people must report an exact value, they use estimation processes that combine the remembered stimulus value with category information. The proposed estimation processes include truncation at category boundaries and weighting with a central (prototypic) category value. These processes introduce bias in reporting even when memory is unbiased, but nevertheless may improve overall accuracy (by decreasing the variability of reports). Four experiments are presented in which people report the location of a dot in a circle. Subjects spontaneously impose horizontal and vertical boundaries that divide the circle into quadrants. They misplace dots toward a central (prototypic) location in each quadrant, as predicted by the model. The proposed model has broad implications; notably, it has the potential to explain biases of the sort described in psychophysics (contraction bias and the bias captured by Weber's law) as well as symmetries in similarity judgments, without positing distorted representations of physical scales.
Item memory and memory for spatial location were examined in college students, mildly retarded persons and moderately retarded persons. They performed under semantic or nonsemantic encoding instructions to remember pictures presented in a large book. Recall and relocation (unexpected) tests followed immediately after studying the pictures and, again, 24 h later. Mildly retarded persons were deficient in memory for items (effortful processing), but not in memory for location (automatic processing). Moderately retarded persons were deficient in both types of memory. Additionally, there were IQ-related differences in the long-term memory of location information, as well as item information. Location memory, as opposed to item memory, was shown to be (1) sensitive to encoding instruction, (2) insensitive to differences in intelligence, and (3) more sensitive to long-term forgetfulness.
Naveh-Benjamin (1987, 1988) has shown that memory for spatial location does not meet the criteria for automatic encoding as claimed by Hasher and Zacks (1979). Age, intention, concurrent processing demands, practice, strategies, and individual differences affected memory for location. These variables should have affected effortful but not automatic processing. The experiments reported in the present paper, in which a different task was used, showed that intention, practice, and concurrent processing demands did not affect memory for location. I concluded that (1) the location task used by Naveh-Benjamin included effortful subtasks and also incidental cover or concurrent processing tasks that interfered directly with performance, and (2) the variables that he manipulated may not have affected the encoding of location. The need to differentiate processes from task performance in analyzing the automaticity issue is discussed. The dominant mode for remembering location is automatic, but such information may also be remembered voluntarily.
The recall of spatial location in patients with left or right temporal-lobe lesions was studied in two experiments, in which recall was tested either immediately after presentation of an array of objects, or after an intervening verbal task, a spatial task or an unfilled interval. Deficits were found only in patients with right temporal-lobe lesions that included extensive removal of the hippocampal region, and only when recall was tested after a delay. The presence of an intervening task in the delay interval did not accentuate the deficit. The results show that, despite a normal ability to encode location, patients with large right hippocampal lesions demonstrate an abnormally rapid forgetting of such information.
An investigation of the extension of O'KEEFE and NADEL's [The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1978] theory of hippocampal functioning is described in patients who have undergone unilateral temporal lobectomy for the relief of epilepsy. A new spatial task, incorporating a recall-for-designs test but based on studies of spatial memory and cognitive mapping in animals was devised. Results supported the prediction of temporal lobe structure involvement in the mediation of non-egocentric but not egocentric space, and of the role of right temporal lobe structures in conditions designed to encourage "place" but not "cue" learning strategies. The role of verbal mediation in task performance is also discussed.
Stroke patients were tested for their ability to recognize familiar objects shown in photographs, and we have confirmed previous reports that damage to the right hemisphere impairs recognition of objects shown at an "unusual angle". Additionally, these patients were impaired in matching unfamiliar (nonsense) objects which had been rotated. These impairments are discussed in the context of key task demands, particularly the need to extract depth cues from the photographs, and to rotate form elements to determine whether the samples provided different views of the same object. In the context of other work, these results suggest impairment of advanced perceptual skills which are needed to establish relationships of and among features of the forms.
The purpose was to show whether or not the encoding of location met criteria defining an automatic process (L. Hasher & R. T. Zacks, 1979, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 108, 356-388; 1984, American Psychologist, 39, 1372-1388). Among other criteria, automatic processes are not expected to show developmental changes beyond an early age, to be unrelated to intelligence level, and to be unaffected by instructions. In the first experiment preschool through sixth-grade children were compared on a 40-picturebook task following incidental (remember the names of pictures) or intentional (remember location) instruction. Subjects viewed and named pictures in sets of four, arranged in quadrants in the opened book, and then attempted to recall names of the objects pictured and to relocate pictures on blank pages. In the second experiment, second and sixth graders, college students, elderly persons, and mentally retarded persons were compared on a 60-picturebook task following either incidental or semantic incidental instructions (give the function of objects pictured). Memory for location was invariant across age groups and intelligence level. The only exception was that 3 and 4 year olds were more accurate following intentional instructions. Otherwise there were no differences between intentional and incidental instructions. Semantic instructions resulted in slightly more accurate locations. The results were interpreted as supportive of the Hasher and Zacks' automaticity hypothesis.
An investigation is reported of the ability of normal subjects and patients with right-hemisphere lesions to identify 3-D shadow images of common objects from different viewpoints. Object recognition thresholds were measured in terms of angle of rotation (through the horizontal or vertical axis) required for correct identification. Effects of axial rotation were very variable and no evidence was found of a typical recognition threshold function relating angle of view to object identification. Although the right-hemisphere-lesion group was consistently and significantly worse than the control group, no qualitative differences between the groups were observed. The findings are discussed in relation to Marr's theory that the geometry of a 3-D shape is derived from axial information, and it is argued that the data reported are more consistent with a distinctive-features model of object recognition.
Visual recognition of pictorial material was investigated in a group of 74 patients with localised cerebral lesions. Four tasks of visual perception, figure/ ground, fragmented drawings, enlarged drawings, and photographs of objects from an unconventional view, were administered. An unimpaired performance of the right posterior group on the figure/ground task contrasted with a marked deficit on the unconventional view objects task. It was demonstrated that there is a favoured view for efficiency of object recognition. The findings provide evidence that gestalt formation is intact whereas perceptual classification is impaired in patients with right posterior lesions. The implications of this interpretation of the data for theories of object recognition are discussed.
Patients with unilateral frontal- or temporal-lobe excisions and normal control subjects were tested on the recall of objects and of their location in an array. An incidental-learning situation was used, in which the task was presented as a test of the ability to estimate the prices of the objects. Patients with right frontal-lobe lesions were the only group impaired on price estimation, but a correlation was obtained between error-score in price estimation and lesion-size for the left frontal-lobe group. In contrast to patients with extensive right hippocampal excisions, both frontal-lobe groups were accurate on location-recall when tested immediately and again 24 hr later.
Incidental and intentional learning of spatial location was studied in amnesics and normals. It was found that spatial encoding of amnesics improved with instruction whereas the spatial encoding of normal adults did not. The finding suggests that spatial encoding in amnesics may be qualitatively different from that of normal adults.
In the present study the spatial location of picture and word stimuli was varied across four quadrants of photographic slides. Young and old people received either pictures or words to study and were told to remember either just the item or the item and its location. Recognition memory for items and memory for spatial location were tested. A pictorial superiority effect occurred for both old and young people's item recognition. Additionally, instructions to study position decreased item memory and facilitated position memory in both age groups. Spatial memory was markedly superior for pictures compared with matched words for old and young adults. The results are interpreted within the Hasher and Zacks framework of automatic processing. The implications of the data for designing mnemonic aids for elderly persons are considered.
Patients with left or right temporal lobectomies, the amnesic patient H.M. with bilateral mesial temporal-lobe damage, and normal control subjects were tested on the incidental recall of objects and their location, both immediately and after a delay. An impairment was seen for both temporal-lobe groups in the delayed recall of objects, but only for the right temporal-lobe group in immediate and delayed recall of location. The deficits after right temporal lobectomy were contingent upon radical excision of the hippocampal region. On both object-recall and location-recall, H.M. was inferior to the most impaired patients with unilateral temporal lobectomies.
The hypothesis that prior experience, specifically a knowledge-based schema for typical house layouts, can compensate for age declines in spatial memory was evaluated in 4 experiments. Old and young adults explored and subsequently recalled house layouts presented 1 room at a time on a computer screen. The findings failed to support the compensation hypothesis in that schema-relevant layouts facilitated recall equivalently for the 2 age groups. Violation of a typical house schema had a more negative effect on recall of the older group. Individual differences in spatial visualization ability explained much of the age difference in performance but not the effects of schema manipulations. It was concluded that there is age invariance in the facilitatory effects of relevant prior knowledge on spatial memory but an age-related decrease in the ability to inhibit irrelevant prior knowledge.
Areas and pathways subserving object and spatial vision are segregated in the visual system. Experiments show that the primate prefrontal cortex is similarly segregated into object and spatial domains. Neurons that code information related to stimulus identity are dissociable, both by function and region, from those that code information related to stimulus location. These findings indicate that the prefrontal cortex contains separate processing mechanisms for remembering "what" and "where" an object is.
A dual-task paradigm was used to test Hasher and Zacks' (1979) hypothesis that spatial memory is automatic. Subjects saw two sets of 16 words each, the words being presented singly in random corners of a monitor screen. They were asked to remember the words and the corner in which each word was shown. In addition, subjects were given a concurrent task to perform. This task was either "easy" (counting aloud by ones) or "difficult" (counting aloud by sevens). Attention was focused either on the memory task or on the counting task. Word recognition was better when subjects carried out the easier competing counting task and when subjects concentrated mainly upon remembering the words and their positions. Contingent spatial memory was unaffected by either manipulation, supporting the hypothesis that spatial memory is automatic.
Memory for contrived facts and the source of those facts was assessed in a group of early-stage HD patients and an age- and education-equated group of healthy control subjects. Fact recall did not differ significantly between the groups, but erroneous source attributions were more common among the HD patients. Like individuals with frontal lobe damage, HD patients have impaired memory for the source of learned information. Volume of the left caudate nucleus on MRI scans correlated with fact recall and source memory measures. These results suggest that this nucleus, or its neocortical projections, play an important role in the coding of context.
Three experiments are reported on short-term memory for object location. Stimulus displays containing different numbers and types of objects were presented for 30 seconds, after which subjects were required to relocate the various objects within the display, merely to reconstruct positions, or to assign objects correctly to an equal number of premarked positions. In all experiments half the trials were performed with concurrent articulatory suppression. The results support the hypothesis that two processes can be distinguished: one that underlies the construction of a positional map and one that assigns objects to positions. These processes are differentially affected by object numbers and articulatory suppression. This hypothesis is discussed in terms of Baddeley's (1986) working memory model and Kosslyn's (1987) distinction between "categorical" and "coordinate" spatial relations.
Patients with unilateral temporal lobe damage resulting from intractable temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE, n = 30) or from temporal lobe resection (temporal lobectomy, TLR, n = 47) were investigated on the Nine-box Maze. The task, analogous to the radial arm maze, was designed to compare spatial mapping and working memory theories of the functions of the hippocampus. The task provides measures of spatial, object, working and reference memory, incorporated into a within subjects design. The spatial component was designed to encourage the formation of allocentric rather than egocentric spatial representations. Spatial memory deficits were found (across working and reference memory components) in both TLE and TLR patients with right temporal lobe damage, with intact spatial memory in patients with corresponding left temporal lobe damage. Performance on the matched non-spatial (object) working memory component was equal to healthy controls for all groups. However all patient groups showed a deficit on object reference memory. These findings are discussed in relation to the underlying temporal lobe pathology and particularly atrophy of the hippocampal formation. Overall, the results support the cognitive mapping theory of hippocampal function, with the demonstration of a selective (and probably allocentric) spatial memory deficit in patients with right hippocampal damage.
We have used neuroimaging techniques, mainly positron emission tomography (PET), to study cognitively driven issues about working memory. Two kinds of experiments are described. In the first kind, we employ standard subtraction logic to uncover the basic components of working memory. These studies indicate that: (a) there are different working-memory systems for spatial, object, and verbal information (with the spatial system localized more in the right hemisphere, and the verbal system more in the left hemisphere); (b) within at least the spatial and verbal systems, separable components seem to be responsible for the passive storage of information and the active maintenance of information (with the storage component being localized more in the back of the brain, and the maintenance component in the front); and (c) there may be separate components responsible for processing the contents of working memory (localized in prefrontal cortex). In our second kind of experiment we have focused on verbal working memory and incrementally varied one task parameter-memory load-in an effort to obtain a more fine-grained analysis of the system's operations. The results indicate that all relevant components of the system show some increase in activity with increasing memory load (e.g., the frontal regions responsible for verbal rehearsal show incremental increases in activation with increasing memory load). In contrast, brain regions that are not part of the working-memory system show no effect of memory load. Furthermore, the time courses of activation may differ for regions that are sensitive to load versus those that are not. Taken together, our results provide support for certain cognitive models of working memory (e.g., Baddeley, 1992) and also suggest some distinctions that these models have not emphasized. And more fundamentally, the results provide a neural base for cognitive models of working memory.