Figure 6. The modified Delayed Match to Sample (DMS) task.

Schematic shows a typical memory trial at the test phase of the task. Repeated retrieval of a target memory item (Match) occurs. Participants were first presented with a sample target object and then viewed test objects (target or distracters) in rapid succession for each memory trial. Subjects were instructed to forget the previous sample target object only when a new sample target object appeared. For Experiment 1, a study phase was included. During the study phase, participants memorized 80 line drawing pictures until they reach 95% accuracy in immediate recognition. Thus, half of the images were studied during the test phase. The sample target object was followed by 10 successive old and new distracter objects at a rate of 2 sec per picture. The DMS task consisted of 80 trials separated into eight blocks of 10 trials each. It took about 50 minutes to complete the task for each participant. The protocol for Experiment 2 used a shorter and simpler version of the task [47], which did not include a study phase, and total time is about 20 minutes for each participant.