Visual and verbal memory for objects and their spatial locations

Abstract

Four experiments assessed the role of verbal and visual processing in memory for aspects of a simulated, real-world spatial display. Subjects viewed a three-dimensional model of a city with 16 bulidings that were placed on the display. The buildings were represented on the model with or without an accompanying name label on each buliding. After studying the display, subjects were tested on recall and recognition of the building names, picture recognition of the buildings, and spatial memory for where the bulidings had been located. Overall picture recognition accuracy was low, and the presence of a name label on each building significantly reduced picture recognition accuracy but improved relocation accuracy. Spatial location information was not encoded independently of verbal and visual identity information. However, location information was more accurately retained with memory for verbal than visual aspects of the stimuli. The results are discussed in terms of the theoretical importance of differentiating memory for the identity of visual stimuli from descriptive memory for their physical characteristics in "visual memory" research.