Contact: Sean Bettam
s.bettam@utoronto.ca
416-946-7950
University of Toronto

Figure for Visual Clutter and MCI Study

Caption: Participants in a University of Toronto and Georgia Institute of Technology study indicated whether two rotated objects were the same or different. The objects were ambiguous, blob-like stimuli which shared many similar features, or everyday objects which shared few features. In the Low Interference condition, blob-like comparisons were interspersed with the photographs of everyday objects. In the High Interference condition, all trials contained the blob-like objects. Memory impaired participants were impaired at discriminating the objects in the High Interference condition, but performed like controls on the Low Interference condition. Perceptual interference was reduced by minimizing the number of visually similar features. This study provides evidence that perception may be closely tied to memory.

Credit: Image: Rachel Newsome, University of Toronto

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