engleski

Role of colour diagnosticity in object recognition memory

Different features of pictures can be used as recognition clues. Previous studies have shown that colour is one of them. However, it is still unclear whether enhanced recognition memory by colours is due to the distinctiveness of features highlighted by colours (sensory facilitation), or it is due to the colour representation in memory (cognitive facilitation). One possible way to define mechanisms through which colour enhances memory is to investigate the role of colour diagnosticity in picture recognition memory which can be defined as the degree to which an object was associated with a specific colour. Colour diagnosticity was manipulated by using pictures in two colours modes: naturally (high colour diagnosticity) and unnaturally (low colour diagnosticity) coloured pictures. Unnatural coloured mode was complementary to the natural. Since there were two different versions of picture in the encoding phase and two in the recognition phase, there were four possible combinations of encoding and recognizing pictures. There were three groups of participants who were exposed to different combinations of encoding and recognizing pictures. Accuracy and recognition time were measured. Results showed strong encoding-specificity effect (better picture recognition in the same version as in the study phase), with no differences in correct recognitions of naturally and unnaturally coloured pictures. This indicates that colour improves recognition memory through sensory facilitation, not by colour representation in memory. In other words, colour diagnosticity effect was not found. However, recognition time was longer for unnaturally coloured pictures and shorter for naturally coloured ones which suggest that recognition time depends on the fact that colour is a part of an identity of picture stimuli. To sum up, colour diagnosticity takes part only during recognition time, but does not affect the accuracy itself.

colour diagnosticity; recognition memory; encoding-specificity

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