Fleeting Memories: Cognition of Brief Visual Stimuli

286 Pages·1999·13.584 MB·English

by  Veronika Coltheart

F M
leeting emories
C B V S
ognition of rief isual timuli
V C
edited by eronika oltheart
Fleeting Memories
Cognition of Brief Visual Stimuli
edited by Veronika Coltheart
The investigation of what people understand and
remember from rapidly presented sequences of visual
stimuli began in the late 1960s. In this book prominent
researchers approach the topic from psychological,
neuropsychological, and electrophysiological perspec­
tives. Specific issues include RSVP (rapid serial visual
presentation), attentional blink, repetition blindness,
and scene perception. The contributors review recent
research on our ability to comprehend and remember
pictures of objects and scenes, written words, and
sentences when the visual stimuli are presented se­
quentially at rates of up to ten items per second. In
short, the book is about our remarkably developed
abilities to understand and remember the contents of
very briefly presented material.
Veronika Coltheart is Associate Professor of Psychol­
ogy at Macquarie University, Australia.
Cognitive Psychology series. A Bradford Book
Fleeting Memories
MIT Press/Bradford Books Series in
Cognitive Psychology
Stephen E. Palmer, editor
A Dynamic Systems Approach to Development: Applications, edited by
Linda B. Smith and Esther Thelen (1993)
A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action,
edited by Esther Thelen and Linda B. Smith (1994)
Cognition and the Visual Arts, by Robert L. Solso (1994)
Indirect Perception, edited by Irvin Rock (1996)
Perceiving Talking Faces: From Speech Perception to a Behavioral Principle,
by Dominic W. Massaro (1997)
Inattentional Blindness, by Arien Mack and Irvin Rock (1998)
Fleeting Memories: Cognition of Brief Visual Stimuli, edited by Veronika
Coltheart (1999)
Fleeting Memories
Cognition of Brief Visual Stimuli
edited by Veronika Coltheart
A Bradford Book
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 1999 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic
or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and
retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Palatino by Crane Composition, Inc.
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fleeting memories : cognition of brief visual stimuli / edited by Veronika Coltheart.
p. cm.—(MIT Press/Bradford Books series in cognitive psychology)
"A Bradford book."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-262-03261-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Visual perception. 2. Short-term memory. 3. Cognition.
I. Coltheart, Veronika. II. Series.
BF241.F57 1999
153.1'32—dc21 98-36547
CIP
Contents
Series Foreword vii
Acknowledgments ix
Chapter 1
Introduction: Perceiving and Remembering Brief Visual Stimuli 1
Veronika Coltheart
Chapter 2
Understanding Sentences and Scenes: The Role of Conceptual Short-
Term Memory 13
Mary C. Potter
Chapter 3
Understanding and Remembering Briefly Glimpsed Pictures:
Implications for Visual Scanning and Memory 47
Helene Intraub
Chapter 4
Inattentional Amnesia 71
Jeremy M. Wolfe
Chapter 5
The Attentional Blink: A Front-End Mechanism for Fleeting
Memories 95
Kimron L. Shapiro and Steven J. Luck
Chapter 6
Repetition Blindness for Pictures: Evidence for the Rapid
Computation of Abstract Visual Descriptions 119
Nancy Kanwisher, Carol Yin, and Ezva Wojciulik
Chapter 7
Role and Nature of Object Representations in Perceiving and
Acting 151
Daphne Bavelier
vi Contents
Chapter 8
Phonological Codes in Reading Comprehension, Short-Term
Memory, and Memory for Rapid Visual Sequences 181
Veronika Coltheart
Chapter 9
Meaning but Not Words: Neuropsychological Evidence for Very
Short-Term Conceptual Memory 225
Eleanor M. Saffran and Nadine Martin
Chapter 10
Fleeting Memories: A Summary and Conclusion 239
Veronika Coltheart
Contributors 261
Index 263

Series Foreword
This series presents definitive works on cognition viewed from a psy­
chological perspective, including undergraduate and graduate text­
books, reference works, research monographs, and edited volumes.
Among the wide variety of topics addressed are perception, attention,
imagery, memory, learning, categorization, language, problem solving,
thinking, and cognitive development. Although the primary emphasis
is on presenting psychological theories and findings, most volumes
in the series are interdisciplinary, attempting to develop important
connections between cognitive psychology and the related fields of
anthropology, computer science, education, linguistics, neuroscience,
and philosophy.
Stephen E. Palmer