All Articles Tagged As: visual memory

How does an outfielder know where to run for a fly ball? (1/22/2010)

To test three theories that might explain an outfielder's ability to catch a fly ball, researcher Philip Fink, Ph.D., from Massey University in New Zealand and Patrick Foo, Ph.D., from the University of North Carolina at Ashville programmed Brown University's virtual reality lab, the VENLab, to produce realistic balls and simulate catches. The team then lobbed virtual fly balls to a dozen experienced ball players. ...> Full Article

Perceptual learning relies on local motion signals to learn global motion (9/24/2009)

Study shows perceptual learning of global pattern motion ...> Full Article

New study shows those blinded by brain injury may still 'see' (9/6/2009)

Except in clumsy moments, we rarely knock over the box of cereal or glass of orange juice as we reach for our morning cup of coffee. New research at the University of Western Ontario has helped unlock the mystery of how our brain allows us to avoid these undesired objects. ...> Full Article

Binge drinking affects attention and working memory in young university students (8/14/2009)

A new study looks at binge drinking's impact on attention and visual working memory processes in young Spanish university students. Results indicate that binge drinkers expend more attentional effort to complete a given task, and also have problems differentiating between relevant and irrelevant information ...> Full Article

The brain 'joins the dots' when drawing a cartoon face from memory (3/22/2009)

In a study by Miall, Gowen and Tchalenko published by Elsevier, in the March issue of Cortex, a brain scanner was used to record the brain's activity in each stage of the process of drawing faces. ...> Full Article

Cracking the spatial memory code (3/16/2009)

Researchers have shown that they can tell where a person is "standing" within a virtual reality room on the basis of the pattern of activity in the brain alone. The findings, published online on March 12 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offer compelling evidence that the hippocampus, a region of the brain critical to navigation, memory, and imagining future experiences, works in a structured and predictable way. That discovery is contrary to what many experts had previously suspected, according to the researchers. ...> Full Article

Study indicates how we maintain visual details in short-term memory (2/24/2009)

We receive much of our information through our visual system, but it was unknown how much of this visual information is actively involved in short-term memory. A new study in Psychological Science suggests that during short term memory, the visual area of the brain is actively "thinking" about a specific feature of an object (e.g. color or orientation), to ensure that the information will be maintained and not forgotten. ...> Full Article

Echoes discovered in early visual brain areas play role in working memory (2/22/2009)

Vanderbilt University researchers have discovered that early visual areas, long believed to play no role in higher cognitive functions such as memory, retain information previously hidden from brain studies. The researchers made the discovery using a new technique for decoding data from functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI. The findings are a significant step forward in understanding how we perceive, process and remember visual information. ...> Full Article

Scientists see the light: How vision sends its message to the brain (2/4/2009)

Scientists have known for more than 200 years that vision begins with a series of chemical reactions when light strikes the retina, but the specific processes have been a mystery. A team of researchers have she new light on this process by "capturing" this chemical communication for future study. This research, published in the February 2009 issue of the FASEB Journal, may lead to new treatments for some forms of blindness and vision disorders. ...> Full Article

Neural mechanisms of value bias in the human visual cortex (12/26/2008)

New research demonstrates that bias toward a potentially more valuable outcome can influence how visual information is processed in the human brain. The study, published by Cell Press in the Dec. 26 issue of the journal Neuron, provides insight into how the visual centers encode more valuable stimuli at the expense of less valuable alternatives. ...> Full Article

Study indicates how we make proper movements (12/23/2008)

How do we make proper movements? A new study in Psychological Science suggests that when we see an object, a number of motor programs in the brain are involuntarily activated (each with a different potential movement we can make), which all compete with one another. One program emerges as the winner of the competition and is ready to be implemented while the other programs (which would result in erroneous movements) are inhibited. ...> Full Article

Our cheatin' brain: The brain's clever way of showing us the world as a whole (10/31/2008)

Boundary extension is a mistake that we often make when recalling a view of a scene -- we will insist that the boundaries of an image stretched out farther than what we actually saw. Results of a new study indicate that boundary extension occurs when a scene is interrupted for as little as 42 milliseconds (quicker than an eye blink!) and even when volunteers know exactly what is being tested. ...> Full Article

The 'satellite navigation' in our brains (9/21/2008)

Neuroscientist says our brains contain their own navigation system much like satellite navigation ("sat-nav"), with in-built maps, grids and compasses ...> Full Article

Researchers find memory capacity much bigger than previously thought (9/12/2008)

Researchers have shown that given the right setting, the human brain can record an amazing amount of information. ...> Full Article

Attention grabbers snatch lion's share of visual memory (8/9/2008)

Visual memory more flexible than previously believed ...> Full Article

A New Look at How Memory and Spatial Cognition are Related (8/5/2008)

Study measured structures of the brain thought to be essential for spatial cognition ...> Full Article

Sight Recovery After Blindness Offers New Insights on Brain Reorganization (5/18/2008)

Studies of the brains of blind persons whose sight was partially restored later in life have produced a compelling example of the brain's ability to adapt to new circumstances and rewire and reconfigure itself. ...> Full Article

Mechanisms of memory identified (4/27/2008)

Major step forward in understanding how memory works ...> Full Article

Are you my mother? Transference more pronounced when we are tired (4/4/2008)

Mental representations of significant others may be activated from memory and applied to new people that you meet who resemble someone you know ...> Full Article

Hand Can't Be Fooled, Study Shows (3/12/2008)

Research published in the March issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, is suggesting that we process images in two very distinct ways. ...> Full Article

New study focuses on eye movement (1/25/2008)

A scientist has uncovered one of the "missing links" in understanding visual signals that determine where and why we move our eyes to focus on details in our environment. ...> Full Article

The Human Brain: Detective of auditory and visual change (1/20/2008)

The human brain is capable of detecting the slightest visual and auditory changes. Whether it is the flash of a student's hand into the air or the faintest miscue of a flutist, the brain instantaneously and effortlessly perceives changes in our environment. Several studies have indicated, however, that even a small span of time in between pre- and post-change images can disturb the brain's ability to detect visual discrepancies. ...> Full Article

Feline footsteps point to visual memory (8/26/2007)

There's a reason cats rarely make a false step - they remember where their feet have been. ...> Full Article