Throwing to Memorized Locations: Distinguishing Transposition and Spatial Errors in Spatial Memory

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Título

Throwing to Memorized Locations: Distinguishing Transposition and Spatial Errors in Spatial Memory

Autor(es)

Rosales, Hernán; Barraza, Jose Fernando

Afiliación(es) del/de los autor(es)

Rosales, Hernán. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Investigación en Luz, Ambiente y Visión. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología. Instituto de Investigación en Luz, Ambiente y Visión; Argentina
Barraza, Jose Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Investigación en Luz, Ambiente y Visión. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología. Instituto de Investigación en Luz, Ambiente y Visión; Argentina

Resumen

Most studies of visuospatial short-term memory (VSSTM) are conducted on vertical screens using simplified tasks such as change detection, sequence recall, or pointing to memorized positions. In contrast, this study examines VSSTM in a more naturalistic, three-dimensional context, where participants performed goal-directed throwing actions toward stimuli projected on the floor within a 260 × 183 cm area. We conducted four experiments to investigate how different memory demands affect throwing accuracy, and developed a method to isolate errors of serial order from pure spatial localization errors, allowing for a detailed analysis of their respective contributions. In Experiment 1, when participants had to recall both the order and location of six sequentially presented targets, accuracy followed the characteristic inverted U-shaped serial position curve, driven by a combination of spatial and order-related errors. Experiment 2, in which spatial uncertainty was minimized by displaying target locations during recall, showed a remarkable decrease in order errors, particularly for the two first and last elements, highlighting an interaction between spatial and sequential processes. In Experiment 3, where participants only had to recall item-location associations without maintaining order, spatial errors were greatly reduced, and transposition errors decreased for the most recent items. Experiment 4 eliminated serial demands entirely by presenting stimuli simultaneously and varying memory load (N). Results revealed that both spatial and transposition errors increased with N, diverging from one another starting at N = 3, thus demonstrating the separable impact of each source of error. Overall, these findings provide new behavioral evidence for the multiplicity of error sources in VSSTM and offer a methodological framework to decompose performance into distinct cognitive components, aligning with probabilistic models of memory.

Año de publicación

2025

Idioma

inglés

Formato (Tipo MIME)

application/octet-stream

Clasificación temática de acuerdo a la FORD

Ingeniería eléctrica, electrónica e informática

Condiciones de uso

Disponible en acceso abierto bajo licencia Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/

Repositorio digital

CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Identificador de proyecto

Ministerio de Ciencia. Tecnología e Innovación Productiva. Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica/PICT 2021 0707