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Eye movements during long-term pictorial recall

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Abstract

We investigated eye movements during long-term pictorial recall. Participants performed a perceptual encoding task, in which they memorized 16 stimuli that were displayed in different areas on a computer screen. After the encoding phase the participants had to recall and visualize the images and answer to specific questions about visual details of the stimuli. One week later the participants repeated the pictorial recall task. Interestingly, not only in the immediate recall task but also 1 week later participants looked longer at the areas where the stimuli were encoded. The major contribution of this study is that memory for pictorial objects, including their spatial location, is stable and robust over time.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, PDFM1-114406, Pro*Doc (awarded to FM). We thank all participants who took part in the study and Lilla Gurtner for her help during data collection.

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Correspondence to Corinna S. Martarelli.

Appendix

Appendix

List of the 16 auditory labels (translations) used during the tasks.

Child, Cook, Man, Guitarist, Tennis player, Hindu Deity, Angel, Robot, Fox, Parrot, Sheep, Squirrel, Dog, Giraffe, Goat, Centaur.

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Martarelli, C.S., Mast, F.W. Eye movements during long-term pictorial recall. Psychological Research 77, 303–309 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-012-0439-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-012-0439-7

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