The Impact of Stereoscopic 3-D on Visual Short-Term Memory

Visual short-term memory has been studied extensively, however nearly all research on this topic has assessed two-dimensional object properties. This is unexpected, given that most individuals perceive the visual environment in three-dimensions. In the experiments reported here, I investigate the stimuli necessary to assess visual short-term memory while eliminating potential confounds: the use of verbal memory to encode visual information, and the unintentional use of mental resources directed at irrelevant aspects of the memory task. I assess the impact of the amount of disparity, and the distribution of elements in depth, on visual short-term memory. Individuals retain simple visual stimuli equivalently when information is displayed in 2-D or 3-D, regardless of how objects are distributed in 3-D. Conversely, ease of encoding does influence visual short-term memory. Tasks that facilitate encoding result in better visual short-term memory performance. The experiments reported show that stereoscopic 3-D does not improve visual short-term memory.