Direct Access by Spatial Position in Visual Memory. 1. Synopsis of Principal Findings.

Changes in the internal representation of a visual display during the first second after presentation are among the earliest phases of human cognition where memory mechanisms may be investigated. The effect of array size 2-6 digits on the latency to name a visually marked element in a brief display increases rapidly with marker delay, revealing such a change in representation. For early markers the effect is negligible, indicating direct access and spatially-selective attention for late markers the effect is a linear increase, indicating a failure of selective attention and suggesting search. In other words, the transformation changes the representation from a random-access memory to a sequential-access memory. Two alternatives to direct access marker makes element visually distinctive marker automatically attracts visual attention are rejected, as tactile spatial markers produce similar effects. Keywords Psychology Visual information processing reaction time visual memory.