Visual short-term memory for crossed and uncrossed binocular disparities

Previous work on visual short-term memory (VSTM) has encompassed various stimulus attributes including spatial frequency, color, and contrast, revealing specific time courses and a dependence on stimulus parameters. This study investigates visual short-term memory for binocular depth, using dynamic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	PloS one Vol. 19; no. 10; p. e0312202
Main Authors:	Nemes, Vanda Ágnes, Radó, János, Fülöp, Diána, Mikó-Baráth, Eszter, Hamvas, Imola, Jandó, Gábor, Buzás, Péter
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Public Library of Science 22-10-2024
Subjects:	Adult Analysis Binocular vision Biology and Life Sciences Brain research Changing environments Convergence Environmental changes Female Frequency dependence Health aspects Humans Investigations Male Masking Matching-to-sample Memory Memory, Short-Term - physiology Perception Photic Stimulation Psychophysiology Research and Analysis Methods Retention Retention time Short-term memory Social Sciences Spatial memory Stereograms Time dependence Vision Disparity - physiology Vision, Binocular - physiology Visual acuity Visual Perception - physiology Visual stimuli Visual system Young Adult Hungary United States > US
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Summary:	Previous work on visual short-term memory (VSTM) has encompassed various stimulus attributes including spatial frequency, color, and contrast, revealing specific time courses and a dependence on stimulus parameters. This study investigates visual short-term memory for binocular depth, using dynamic random dot stereograms (DRDS) featuring disparity planes in front of or behind the plane of fixation. In a delayed match-to-sample paradigm, we employed four distinct reference disparities (17.5', 28.8' either crossed or uncrossed) at two contrast levels (20%, 80%), spanning interstimulus intervals (ISI) of up to 4 s. Test stimuli represented a range of equally spaced values centered around the reference disparity of the ongoing trial. In addition, the impact of a memory masking stimulus was also tested in a separate experiment. Accuracy and point of subjective equality (PSE) served as performance markers. The performance, indicated by the accuracy of responses, was better for smaller reference disparities (±17.5') compared to larger ones (±28'), but both deteriorated as a function of ISI. The PSE demonstrated a consistent shift with increasing ISIs, irrespective of the magnitude of the initial disparity, converging gradually toward the range of 20-22' and deviating from the reference disparity. Notably, the influence of masking stimuli on the PSE was more marked when the mask disparity diverged from the reference value. The findings from our study indicate that the retention of absolute disparity in memory is imprecise, it deteriorates with retention time or due to perturbation by dissimilar masking stimuli. As a result, the memory trace is gradually replaced by a default depth value. This value could potentially signify an optimal point within low-level perceptual memory, however, our results are better explained by perceptual averaging whereby the visual system computationally derives a statistical summary of the presented disparities over time. The latter mechanism would aid in the computation of relative disparity in a dynamically changing environment.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0312202