Spatial and temporal massive memory in humans

It is well known that humans have a massive memory for pictures and scenes.1-4 They show an ability to encode thousands of images with only a few seconds of exposure to each. In addition to this massive memory for whatobservers have seen, three experiments reported here show that observers have a spatial massive memory(SMM) for wherestimuli have been seen and a temporal massive memory(TMM) for whenstimuli have been seen. The positions in time and space for at least dozens of items can be reported with good, if not perfect accuracy. Previous work has suggested that there might be good memory for stimulus location,5,6 but there do not seem to have been concerted efforts to measure the extent of this memory. Moreover, in our method, observers are recalling where items were located and not merely recognizing the correct location. This is interesting because massive memory is sometimes thought to be limited to recognition tasks based on sense of familiarity.

Automated summary

It is well known that humans have a massive memory for pictures and scenes. In addition, three experiments show that humans have a spatial massive memory for where stimuli have been seen and a temporal massive memory for when stimuli have been seen. Previous work has suggested good memory for stimulus location, but there have been no concerted efforts to measure the extent of this memory. Moreover, our method involves recalling item locations rather than just recognizing the correct location, which is interesting.