Free recall and complexity of pictorial stimuli

Abstract

In order to explore variables underlying primacy and recency effects in free recall of pictorial material. norms were developed using 120 subjects who rated the vividness and complexity of slides. Two experiments were then run in which two levels of each of these variables (extreme high and low ratings) were factorially combined. In the first experiment 24 subjects were shown three mixed lists, two short and one long (consisting of materials of all four combinations of vividness and complexity), and in the second experiment 12 subjects were shown four pure lists (consisting of materials of a single type). Analysis of variance showed list length in the mixed list experiment and complexity in both experiments to be strong determinants of recall. Greatest recall was for items of low complexity in short lists. Weak, but statistically significant, serial position effects were evident, particularly for less complex items. The effects of primacy and recency seem to decrease with increasing complexity of visual materials. perhaps because of the greater difficulty in rehearsing more complex pictures either verbally or iconically.When any set of stimuli that exceeds our immediate memory span is presented and we are later asked to recall or recognize these stimuli, items at the beginning and end of the sequence have a higher probability of being recalled than items near the middle of the sequence. This hypothesis has been substantiated so consistently under so many different conditions that it has almost achieved the status of an empirical law. Under some circumstances, the recency effect is stronger than the primacy effect, but a reported failure to find either effect in a series of well-eontrolled experiments is an impetus to look carefully at the research.Using complex pictures that did not evoke a consistent label Shaffer and Shiffrin (1972) found that recognition was affected by presentation time but not by the time following a picture. Furthermore, neither primacy nor recency was demonstrated. In order to further explore this finding and its implications for a theory of memory which postulates separate shortand long-term stores, Shiffrin (1973) developed an ingenious procedure for studying free recall of complex pictures. Using a dependent variable based on vividness with which subjects reported recalling the picture, Shiffrin found (1) little primacy or recency effect regardless of presentation time or length of list and (2) a strong list-length effect showing significantly poorer recall for slides in longer lists when presentation time was held constant.Since we agreed with Shiffrin that both primacy and recency effects are, at least within a two-stage memory model, attributable to the additional rehearsal that is usually given to early items and final items in a series, the results seemed to suggest that we may not be able to effectively rehearse complex visual stimuli during periods when they are not physically present.We thank P. Herzer and J. Coleman for their assistance in collecting and analyzing the data. The

Simple drawing and pattern completion techniques for studying visualization and long-term visual knowledge

“…The present serial position functions differ from those obtained with verbal recall of pictures that normally show the same primacy and recency effects as for verbal material (e.g., Tabachnick & Brotsky, 1976). This is probably because verbal recall leads to the use of verbal representations.…”

Learning Complex Visual Stimuli: Effects of Spaced Presentation and Rehearsal on Aircraft Recognition

“…The positive effect of rehearsal is inconsistent with some earlier research that failed to find effects of rehearsal using complex visual stimuli (e. g., Hintzman and Rogers, 1973), or which found a rehearsal advantage only for visual stimuli low in complexity (Shaffer and Shiffrin, 1972;Tabachnik and Brotsky, 1976). However, most of the studies failing to find an effect of rehearsal used comparison (control) conditions that may not have completely prevented rehearsal during the nonexposure period, and therefore they may have lacked adequate experimental power to show a positive effect or rehearsal.…”

Drawings of real-world scenes during free recall reveal detailed object and spatial information in memory

“…However, for complex stimuli such as real-world scenes, free recall is challenging to measure. Prior work on free recall of complex stimuli has often employed verbal metrics, having participants encapsulate a visual memory into a single word 7,9,11,12 or brief verbal description 13–15 , but these measures provide limited insight into the content within those memories. Such verbal task-based studies suggest that recall suffers from low capacity, with participants recalling on average fewer than nine items regardless of the number studied 16 .…”