Prototype formation in very short-term memory

Abstract

Following high-speed presentation of stimuli, subjects falsely recognized prototype numbers and words as being among the set of original stimuli. The results suggest high-speed abstraction of information by subjects during or shortly after high-speed perception. This abstraction of a class of information may leave a memory trace that is a more memorable representation of events (as measured by recognition techniques) than are the perceived stimuli. These results suggest that very short-term processing of information is more complicated than simple sequential dualistic models of memory assume. © 1993, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.