This study investigated the effect of color variation on visual short-term memory. Task performances were compared in color matching and color variation memory. The delay in recognition was significantly shortened in the task of color variation memory. This effect has not been reported in other studies on the visual short-term memory of faces and figures. It is presumably mediated by the recognition of color variation in the ventral visual stream of the brain. The present study is the first to report that color variation has an advantage in visual short-term memory.
