We measured the difference threshold for contour curvature in iconic memory by using the cued discrimination method. The study stimulus consisting of 2 to 6 curved contours was briefly presented in the fovea, followed by two lines as cues. Subjects discriminated the curvature of two cued curves. The cue delays were 0 msec. and 300 msec. in Exps. 1 and 2, respectively, and 50 msec. before the st...

Reward plays a fundamental role in human behavior. A growing number of studies have shown that stimuli associated with reward become salient and attract attention. The aim of the present study was to extend these results into the investigation of iconic memory and visual working memory. In two experiments we asked participants to perform a visual-search task where different colors of the target...

To assess priming by iconic gestures, we recorded EEG (at 29 scalp sites) in two experiments while adults watched short, soundless videos of spontaneously produced, cospeech iconic gestures followed by related or unrelated probe words. In Experiment 1, participants classified the relatedness between gestures and words. In Experiment 2, they attended to stimuli, and performed an incidental recog...

OBJECTIVE Previous studies report reduced visual event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes in young males at high risk for alcoholism. These findings could involve difficulties at several stages of visual processing. This study was aimed at examining vigilance performance and iconic memory functions in children at high risk or low risk for alcoholism. METHOD Sustained vigilance and retrieval f...

Human vision briefly retains a trace of a stimulus after it disappears. This trace-iconic memory-is often believed to be a surrogate for the original stimulus, a representational structure that can be used as if the original stimulus were still present. To investigate its nature, a flicker-search paradigm was developed that relied upon a full scan (rather than partial report) of its contents. R...

When a stimulus is presented, its sensory trace decays rapidly, lasting for approximately 1000 ms. This brief and labile memory, referred as iconic memory, serves as a buffer before information is transferred to working memory and executive control. Here we explored the effect of different factors--geometric, spatial, and experience--with respect to the access and the maintenance of information...

In a previous clinical report, unusually fast decay of iconic memory was obtained from a subject who later developed Alzheimer's disease. By using the partial-report paradigm, iconic memory (a form of visual sensory memory) in a group of observers with mild cognitive impairments (MCI) was characterized and compared with that of young college-age adults and older controls. Relatively long stimul...