Episodic memory and semantic knowledge interact to guide eye movements during visual search in scenes: Distinct effects of conscious and unconscious memory.

ABSTRACT: Episodic memory and semantic knowledge can each exert strong influences on visual attention when we search through real-world scenes. However, there is debate surrounding how they interact when both are present; specifically, results conflict as to whether memory consistently improves visual search when semantic knowledge is available to guide search. These conflicting results could be driven by distinct effects of different types of episodic memory, but this possibility has not been examined. To test this, we tracked participants' eyes while they searched for objects in semantically congruent and incongruent locations within scenes during a study and test phase. In the test phase containing studied and new scenes, participants gave confidence-based recognition memory judgments that indexe

SUBMITTER: Ramey MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12273590 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature