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Familiarity increases the number of remembered Pokémon in visual short-term memory

Familiarity increases the number of remembered Pokémon in visual short-term memory Long-term memory (LTM) can influence many aspects of short-term memory (STM), including increased STM span. However, it is unclear whether LTM enhances the quantitative or qualitative aspect of STM. That is, do we retain a larger number of representations or more precise representations in STM for familiar stimuli than unfamiliar stimuli? This study took advantage of participants’ prior rich multimedia experience with Pokémon, without investing on laboratory training to examine how prior LTM influenced visual STM. In a Pokémon visual STM change detection task, participants remembered more first-generation Pokémon characters that they were more familiar with than recent-generation Pokémon characters that they were less familiar with. No significant difference in memory quality was found when quantitative and qualitative effects of LTM were isolated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses. Critically, these effects were absent in participants who were unfamiliar with first-generation Pokémon. Furthermore, several alternative interpretations were ruled out, including general video-gaming experience, subjective Pokémon preference, and verbal encoding. Together, these results demonstrated a strong link between prior stimulus familiarity in LTM and visual STM storage capacity. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Memory & Cognition Springer Journals

Familiarity increases the number of remembered Pokémon in visual short-term memory

Xie, Weizhen; Zhang, Weiwei
Memory & Cognition , Volume 45 (4) – Dec 8, 2016
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References (64)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by Psychonomic Society, Inc.
Subject
Psychology; Cognitive Psychology
ISSN
0090-502X
eISSN
1532-5946
DOI
10.3758/s13421-016-0679-7
pmid
27933560
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Long-term memory (LTM) can influence many aspects of short-term memory (STM), including increased STM span. However, it is unclear whether LTM enhances the quantitative or qualitative aspect of STM. That is, do we retain a larger number of representations or more precise representations in STM for familiar stimuli than unfamiliar stimuli? This study took advantage of participants’ prior rich multimedia experience with Pokémon, without investing on laboratory training to examine how prior LTM influenced visual STM. In a Pokémon visual STM change detection task, participants remembered more first-generation Pokémon characters that they were more familiar with than recent-generation Pokémon characters that they were less familiar with. No significant difference in memory quality was found when quantitative and qualitative effects of LTM were isolated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses. Critically, these effects were absent in participants who were unfamiliar with first-generation Pokémon. Furthermore, several alternative interpretations were ruled out, including general video-gaming experience, subjective Pokémon preference, and verbal encoding. Together, these results demonstrated a strong link between prior stimulus familiarity in LTM and visual STM storage capacity.

Journal

Memory & Cognition – Springer Journals

Published: Dec 8, 2016

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