Shoji Yamamoto, Takeshi Okamoto, Norimichi Tsumura; Visual assessable inspection for short-term memory with eye tracking. Journal of Vision 2017;17(15):52. doi: 10.1167/17.15.52.
An early prediction and diagnosis for dementia is necessary to prevent the progress to serious condition in the aging stage. Focused on the forgetfulness of dementia participants, we developed a visual assessable method to evaluate the ability of short-term memory. Our proposed method employs a visual-type memory test with series position effect with eye tracking. Unlike in the case of verbal test, this visualtype test is easy for elderly people, and it is possible to examine by oneself. Moreover, the use of eye tracking for detection of series position can accomplish a tough-to-fudge procedure for the evaluation of short-term memory. As a practical procedure, the proposed method represents the colored five patches in the 10 degrees field of view. A participant memorizes the color name as a sequential order within a prescribed time limit. After 2 seconds interval with gray screen, the representation of five color patches with one changed color in these patches is executed. The participants obtain a good appraisal when they point out the changed patch based on their memory. The controller can change inquiry position flexibly since the memorized order of each color is recognized by using eye track measurement. As the result of experiment for 20's and 50's participants, a compatible response was obtained as same as the verbal test with series position effect. Moreover, an explicit difference exists that the ability of short-term memory in the 50's participant was degraded compared with the 20's participant.