Information Integration and Information Storage in Retinotopic and Non-Retinotopic Sensory Memory

The first stage of the Atkinson–Shiffrin model of human memory is a sensory memory (SM). The visual component of the SM was shown to operate within a retinotopic reference frame. However, a retinotopic SM (rSM) is unable to account for vision under natural viewing conditions because, for example, motion information needs to be analyzed across space and time. For this reason, the SM store of the Atkinson–Shiffrin model has been extended to include a non-retinotopic component (nrSM). In this paper, we analyze findings from two experimental paradigms and show drastically different properties of rSM and nrSM. We show that nrSM involves complex processes such as motion-based reference frames and Gestalt grouping, which establish object identities across space and time. We also describe a quantitative model for nrSM and show drastic differences between the spatio-temporal properties of rSM and nrSM. Since the reference-frame of the latter is non-retinotopic and motion-stream based, we suggest that the spatiotemporal properties of the nrSM are in accordance with the spatiotemporal properties of the motion system. Overall, these findings indicate that, unlike the traditional rSM, which is a relatively passive store, nrSM exhibits sophisticated processing properties to manage the complexities of ecological perception.