Visual Memory for Place on the Page

Abstract

Sixty-four Ss were asked to read a lengthy prose passage and were subsequently tested for (a) information recall, (b) memory for location of information answers; and (c) discrimination of information answers in a multiple-choice (MC) task. In aggrement with previous studies, spatial memory was highly reliable and significantly greater for correct than incorrect information answers. However, the present experiments showed that cueing Ss to a spatial test did not raise the level of spatial recall over that for a noncued group. Further, proportion of both item and spatial recall was found to increase directly with degree of visual memory for location as indexed by a five-point subjective knowledge scale. There was also a general trend for multiple-choice performance ot improve as degree of visual knowledge for an answer's true location increased. It is apparent that visually mediated spatial memory is a fundamental attribute when text material is encoded, and may be of mnemonic worth when retention of information is required.

Episodic memory for object location versus episodic memory for object identity: Do they rely on distinct encoding processes?

“…The observed absence of benefits from attending to spatial relationships for recovery of absolute location parallels findings from previous experiments with intentional learning paradigms, in which participants' efforts to memorize object location failed to improve location-memory performance (Ellis, 1990;Pezdek & Evans, 1979;von Wright, Gebhard, & Kartunnen, 1975;Zechmeister, McKillip, Pasko, & Bespalec, 1975). These findings led to the proposal that encoding of information about the location of objects proceeds automatically and does not require the allocation of attentional resources (Hasher & Zacks, 1979).…”

Memory for words in prose and their locations on the page

“…The attentional account, although intuitively appealing and "simple," is neither interesting from a memorytheoretic point of view nor consistent with the observation by Zechmeister et al (1975) that the recall of content was not differentially related to quadrant of the page, but that success at specifying location was. The other two explanations of the correlation, that memory for either content or spatial location can facilitate recall of the other, are both implied by any model of memory that assumes (1) that the coded memory representation for an event is a constellation of attributes, and (2) that the greater the number ofattributes retrieved, the greater the cuing value for accessing additional attributes.…”

“…With respect to the latter hypothesis, Zechmeister et al (1975) indicated in their general discussion that they had failed to find support for this hypothesis, but they did not provide procedural details of that research. Although Zechmeister and McKillip (1972, Experiment 2) failed to support the first hypothesis, their procedure for providing the location information was simply to prepare test booklets "with the correct corner of the page indicated for each question" (p. 450).…”

“…Spatial location continues to be identified as one of the fundamental attributes of such constellations (e.g., McCormack, 1976;Underwood, 1983). It appears to be a feature that is "automatically" encoded (Hasher & Zacks, 1979;Schulman, 1973); instructing people that their memory for location also will be tested does not substantially improve spatial memory (e.g., Mandler, Seegmiller, & Day, 1977;von Wright, Gebhard, & Karttunen, 1975;Zechmeister, McKillip, Pasko, & Bespalec, 1975).…”

The role of verbal memory in regressions during reading

“…One possibility is that spatial memory is very critical during regressions, an idea that has been supported by numerous studies. For instance, previous research has provided evidence of a spatial code when participants must relocate information from a long text (see Le Bigot, Passerault, & Olive, 2009;Zechmeister, McKillip, Pasko, & Bespalec, 1975), although this finding has not been reported consistently (see Therriault & Raney, 2002). Christie and Just (1976) suggested that spatial knowledge could be used to organize the text and as an index to address its content.…”