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Dynamics of visuo-spatial remembering: a study of information structuring in memory

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Abstract

We studied the process by which learning a pattern of motor activity reaches a steady-state characterized by a reduction in fluctuations. The stimuli consisted of eight visually presented dots that appeared sequentially. In a 20-trial learning phase, participants reproduced the positions of the eight dots after each presentation. Next, they reproduced the pattern 40 times without renewed presentation. In one condition, spatial distances between the dots were proportional to the intervals between their appearances; in the other they were not proportional. We analyzed how the reproduction stabilized at the configuration and dot levels. In proportional as well as non-proportional conditions, stabilization occurs at different time scales for the configuration and dot levels. The stabilization rate differed between proportional and non-proportional conditions. These results are discussed in the framework of dynamical systems.

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Notes

  1. We situated in the framework of times series analysis which is a collection of observations or responses considered sequentially in time (Chatfield 1975). A time series has the following properties: (a) Observations are ordered in time. (b) The behaviour of the series, at a particular moment, is affected by its behaviour at the previous moment. (c) Future observations are determined, in a certain way, by both present and past observations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR 6152, Mouvement et Perception, Faculté des Sciences du Sport, Université de la Méditerranée CP 910, 13288, Marseille Cedex 09, France

    Bruno Berberian & Marie-Dominique Giraudo

  2. Unité de Recherche en Science Cognitive, Université Libre de Bruxelles CP 191, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt, 50, 1050, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Jean-Christophe Sarrazin

Authors
  1. Bruno Berberian
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  2. Jean-Christophe Sarrazin
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  3. Marie-Dominique Giraudo
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Correspondence to Bruno Berberian.

Additional information

This research was supported by a grant from ACI “Systèmes Complexes en SHS”.

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Berberian, B., Sarrazin, JC. & Giraudo, MD. Dynamics of visuo-spatial remembering: a study of information structuring in memory. Cogn Process 8, 245–260 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-007-0190-y

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