Haripriya Kemisetti¹ (), Yelda Semizer¹; ¹New Jersey Institute of Technology

In everyday life, we sometimes evaluate images, such as deciding how appealing they are, while at other times we simply scan them for specific details. These differences in the way we process visual information can influence how well we remember it later. In this study, we explored how differences in the way people process images affect their memorability. One group of participants were asked to rate images based on perceived attractiveness, encouraging global processing, while another group was asked to search for specific targets, engaging local processing. Following the rating or search tasks, both groups were asked to complete a surprise memory task to assess image memorability. Preliminary results indicate that participants who completed the rating task outperformed those who completed search task, suggesting that global processing is associated with superior memory for images compared to local processing. These findings highlights the practical importance of how we attend and process the visual information can influence how well we remember it.