![]() In the encoding phase of three experiments, participants viewed hundreds of images depicting real-world objects, along with visually similar images that were stripped of their semantic meaning. However, the capacity and limits of a "pure" VLTM that is independent of conceptual information still need to be determined. Previous research demonstrated a massive capacity of visual long-term memory (VLTM) for meaningful images. Strengths in focused attention to detail therefore appear to benefit domain-specific visual working memory task performance. The benefit is removed, however, when multimodal coding may be incorporated, emphasising the visual nature of the benefit. Autistic traits are therefore associated with enhanced processing and recall of visual information. Autistic traits, especially Attention to Detail, Attention Switching, and Communication, positively predicted visual working memory capacity, specifically in the low semantic task, which relies on visual working memory resources. Participants also completed measures of autistic traits and trait anxiety. The latter offered multimodal coding due to the availability of long-term memory resources that could supplement visual working memory. We assessed 144 young adults’ (M = 22.0 yrs, SD = 2.5) performance on abstract, ‘low semantic’ versus ‘high semantic’ task versions. We used a visual ‘matrix’ task, involving recall of black-and-white chequered patterns which increased in size, to establish participants’ capacity (span). ![]() We predicted that any positive effect of autistic traits on visual working memory performance would be greatest during domain-specific tasks, in which visual resources must be relied upon. We tested whether the association between autistic traits and enhanced performance in visual-perceptual tasks extends to visual working memory capacity. The results suggest that memory is aided whenever contextual cues arouse appropriate schemata into which the material to be learned can be fitted. Subjects who heard a phrase identifying and interrelating the pictures of a pair showed greater associative recall and matching than subjects who received no interpretation. ![]() In Experiment II, subjects studied pairs of nonsensical pictures, with or without a linking interpretation provided. Also, a later recognition test showed that subjects receiving the interpretation rated as more similar to the original picture a distractor which was close to the prototype of the interpreted category. ![]() Free recall was much better for subjects receiving the interpretation during study. In the first, nonsensical "droodles" were studied by subjects with or without an accompanying verbal interpretation of the pictures. The thesis advanced is that people remember nonsensical pictures much better if they comprehend what they are about. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |