Dynamics of visuo-spatial remembering: a study of information structuring in memory

Abstract

We studied the process by which learning a pattern of motor activity reaches a steady-state characterized by a reduction in fluctuations. The stimuli consisted of eight visually presented dots that appeared sequentially. In a 20-trial learning phase, participants reproduced the positions of the eight dots after each presentation. Next, they reproduced the pattern 40 times without renewed presentation. In one condition, spatial distances between the dots were proportional to the intervals between their appearances; in the other they were not proportional. We analyzed how the reproduction stabilized at the configuration and dot levels. In proportional as well as non-proportional conditions, stabilization occurs at different time scales for the configuration and dot levels. The stabilization rate differed between proportional and non-proportional conditions. These results are discussed in the framework of dynamical systems.

Action blindness in response to gradual changes

“…To do so, we defined a ''learning phase" and a ''steady state phase" by using the procedure developed by Pailhous and Bonnard (1992) and used in previous studies (Giraudo & Pailhous, 1999;Sarrazin, Giraudo, Pailhous, & Bootsma, 2004;Sarrazin, Giraudo, & Pittenger, 2005; Berberian, Sarrazin, & Giraudo, 2007;Sarrazin, Tonnelier, Berberian, & Giraudo, 2008). The learning phase was considered to be complete when performance had stabilized, that is, when there was no further improvement in accuracy over several trials.…”