Dennis F. Fisher’s research while affiliated with U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center and other places

Notes that previous studies have not been effective in minimizing the temporal dependencies which have favored auditory over visual performance in short-term memory. 2 experiments were conducted using the keeping-track task which has been shown to place importance upon spatial relationships during encoding and storage. Exp. I, with 18 undergraduates, resulted in fewer errors being made during the auditory presentations, suggesting the possibility of differences in the encoding task for each mode. Exp. 2, with 18 undergraduates, attempted to equate the encoding tasks and resulted in the same level of performance for each mode. Results are interpreted as giving support to the "spatial window" model. Both modes were found to be capable of spatial encoding and storage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

: Perceptual confusion matrices were generated with the use of tachistoscopic exposure of upper case letters of the English alphabet at each of two exposure durations. The resulting matrices were compared with those generated by Hodge and Pew and Gardner. Little correspondence was noted between the pattern of confusions obtained in each study. Thus, there was no evidence for the common assumption that a basic 'pattern of confusions' exists between letters of the alphabet. Implications for studies of short-term memory were discussed.

ATTEMPTED TO DETERMINE IF FORGETTING IN VERY SHORT-TERM VISUAL MEMORY IS DUE TO DECAY OR INTERFERENCE. ACOUSTIC CONFUSABILITY, WHICH IMPAIRS SHORT-TERM MEMORY FOR VEBAL MATERIALS, FAILED TO AFFECT PERFORMANCE IN A BRIEF VISUAL MEMORY TASK WHICH EMPLOYED VEBAL MATERIALS BUT PREVENTED COVERT REHEARSAL. VISUAL CONFUSABILITY, HOWEVER, IMPAIRED BOTH PERCEPTUAL PERFORMANCE AND MEMORY PERFORMANCE AT A VERY SHORT DELAY, BUT HAD NO EFFECT AT THE LONGEST DELAY INTERVAL (1 SEC.). THESE RESULTS ARE CONSISTENT WITH SPERLING'S NOTION OF A BRIEF PREPERCEPTUAL STORAGE SYSTEM, AND WITH A DECAY INTERPRETATION OF VEY SHORT-TERM VISUAL MEMORY. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)