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Concept information

phenomenon > memory phenomenon > boundary extension illusion

Preferred term

boundary extension illusion  

Definition

  • A memory phenomenon observed when a person remembers a scene with a wider angle of view than the original view, even incorporating elements that could be present in the extended view.

Broader concept

Related concepts

Synonym(s)

  • boundary extension effect

Scope note

  • In Intraub and Richardson's (1989) experiment, participants study 20 photographs, for 15 seconds each, depicting a main object or a group of objects. After the photographs are presented, subjects draw them from memory. The results show that participants tend to draw the objects smaller than in the studied scenes, thus filling the space with new elements that might have been present if the scenes had been presented with a wider viewing angle. Furthermore, a phenomenon of boundary contraction has been observed when the visual scene contains several dispersed objects, whereas boundary extension illusion occurs when the visual scene contains a few central objects (Bainbridge & Baker, 2020).

Belongs to group

Bibliographic citation(s)

  • • Bainbridge, W. A., & Baker, C. I. (2020). Boundaries extend and contract in scene memory depending on image properties. Current Biology, 30(3), 537-543.e3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.12.004

    • Document type: empirical study

    • Access: open

  • • Blazhenkova, O. (2017). Boundary extension in face processing. I-Perception, 8(5), 2041669517724808. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669517724808

    • Document type: empirical study

    • Access: open

  • • Hubbard, T. L. (2025). Setting the scene for boundary extension: Methods, findings, connections, and theories. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 32(1), 97–138. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-024-02545-w

    • Document type: literature review

    • Access: closed

  • • Intraub, H., & Richardson, M. (1989). Wide-angle memories of close-up scenes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15(2), 179–187. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.15.2.179

    • Document type: empirical study

    • Access: closed

  • • Ménétrier, E., Didierjean, A., & Marmèche, É. (2011). Le système visuel traite-t-il les photographies comme des fenêtres ouvertes sur le monde? L'Année Psychologique, 111(4), 753–773. https://doi.org/10.4074/S0003503311004064

    • Document type: literature review

    • Access: open

  • • van den Bos, L. M. E. C., Benjamins, J. S., & Postma, A. (2020). Episodic and semantic memory processes in the boundary extension effect: An investigation using the remember/know paradigm. Acta Psychologica, 211, 103190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103190

    • Document type: empirical study

    • Access: open

Creator

  • Frank Arnould

In other languages

URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/P66-MXQ2WQPV-P

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