Iconic memory requires attention

Abstract

Two experiments investigated whether attention plays a role in iconic memory, employing either a change detection paradigm (Experiment 1) or a partial-report paradigm (Experiment 2). In each experiment, attention was taxed during initial display presentation, focusing the manipulation on consolidation of information into iconic memory, prior to transfer into working memory. Observers were able to maintain high levels of performance (accuracy of change detection or categorization) even when concurrently performing an easy visual search task (low load). However, when the concurrent search was made difficult (high load), observers' performance dropped to almost chance levels, while search accuracy held at single-task levels. The effects of attentional load remained the same across paradigms. The results suggest that, without attention, participants consolidate in iconic memory only gross representations of the visual scene, information too impoverished for successful detection of perceptual change or categorization of features.

Iconic memory is not a case of attention-free awareness

“…As attention is increasingly withdrawn from the items in the iconic representation, the fewer are the items that can be reported. This, along with the data reported by Persuh et al (2012), indicates that iconic memory cannot be considered an instance of conscious perception without attention as it has been claimed to be (See Aru & Bachmann, 2013 for a recent statement of this claim).…”

“…The first evidence suggesting that iconic memory requires attention was recently reported by Persuh, Genzer, & Melara, 2012. In 2 experiments in which an iconic memory task was paired with a second more or less attentionally demanding task, they found a very significant decrease in the number of items reported from iconic memory when the paired task was attentionally demanding. Even though the reported evidence was significant, we deemed the question at issue sufficiently important to merit further investigation, particularly since the experiments by Persuh et al did not include a comparison between partial and whole reports, which is considered a critical diagnostic of iconic storage and because their iconic stimuli were always peripheral, (5.1°from fixation), which might have significantly degraded the iconic representation.…”

“…Evidence has been presented very recently suggesting at least some aspects of this memory are attention-free (Bronfman, Brezis, Jacobson, & Usher, 2014). 3 In the second experiment of Persuh et al (2012), they used a single 60/40 ratio, which meant the participants were cued to report the searched for items on 60% of the trials and the item from iconic memory on 40% of the trials but probabilities were not varied.…”

“…Therefore the question of the role of attention in iconic memory matters. Recent evidence (Persuh, Genzer, & Melara, 2012), suggests that iconic memory does depend on attention. Because of the centrality of iconic memory to this debate, we looked again at the role of attention in iconic memory using a standard whole versus partial report task of letters in a 3 Â 2 matrix.…”

The effect of black tea on human cognitive performance in a cognitive test battery

“…Visual search task is an established neuropsychological tool for testing the iconic memory [47,48]. It measures two parameters: the reaction time (RT) necessary to either detect or determine spatial location of the target.…”