definition of visual encoding in psychology

This procedure is akin to the partial report technique that typically is used to study iconic memory, but the long delay between the display phase and the recognition phase exceeds the limits of iconic memory, meaning the task depends on longer-lasting VSTM.Ī common version of the sequential comparison procedure is the change-detection task. For example, the subject may be presented with a colored square for 500 ms and then, after a 1000-ms delay, be shown another colored square and asked whether it is the same color as the remembered color. For example, the subject may be presented with a colored square for 500 ms and then, after a 1000-ms delay, be asked to point to the remembered color of this item on a color wheel (see, e.g., Wilken & Ma, 2004).Ī third class of VSTM tasks uses a sequential comparison procedure. These tasks are usually studied in the context of dual-task interference experiments, in which the goal is to determine whether the VSTM task can be performed concurrently with another task.Ī second class of VSTM tasks uses a recall procedure. It is assumed that the mental image is stored in VSTM. In the Brook Matrix Task (Brooks, 1967), for example, subjects are told a set of numbers and their relative spatial locations within a matrix (e.g., “place a 4 in the upper left corner the place a 3 below this position”). In one class of tasks, subjects are are asked to create a mental image.

Figure 3: Typical results from a one-shot change detection task (from Vogel et al., 2001).įour general classes of tasks have most often been used to study VSTM.

Definition of visual encoding in psychology