Abstract
The form of the memory representation for visual patterns consisting of a few line segments was investigated with three tasks. One task was the reproduction of remembered patterns using pencil and paper. The order in which the subparts of those patterns were reproduced was used to make suggestions about possible memory representations for the patterns. The second task involved rating the “goodness” of subparts of the patterns. These ratings were also interpreted as reflecting the underlying representations of the patterns. In the third task, the time required to recognize that a small pattern was part of a larger remembered pattern was used as further evidence about the memory representations of the patterns. The results from all three tasks are consistent with the theory that the memory representations are tree structures. Methods for deriving and comparing tree structures are discussed.
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Reference Notes
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2. Cunningham, J. P.Similarity between trees: A statistical analysis. Paper presented at the meeting of the Society for Mathematical Psychology, Hamilton, Ontario, August 1978.
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This work was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grants GB 32235X, BNS 7622079, and BNS 7906253. Lynn A. Cooper and David E. Rumelhart provided useful advice and comments on versions of the manuscript.
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Cunningham, J.P. Trees as memory representations for simple visual patterns. Memory & Cognition 8, 593–605 (1980). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213779
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213779