Spatial Processing Characteristics in the Perception of Brief Visual Arrays
Abstract
In the Estes and Taylor (1964, 1966) 'detection' experiments, subjects (Ss) saw a brief array containing 'noise' letters plus one of two critical letters, and attempted to determine which critical letter appeared; accuracy decreased as the number of noise letters increased. This was interpreted by Estes and Taylor and by Rumelhart (1970) as demonstrating a limitation of perceptual capacity. However, the experiments involved confoundings: stimulus arrays with more letters were either larger in visual angle or involved greater inter-letter crowding, both of which factors are known to decrease letter perceptibility. Experiments I and II in this study were patterned after the Estes and Taylor paradigm, but controlled both angular size and crowding factors by means of specially designed stimulus arrays. In both experiments, Ss' performance decreased with increases in the number of letters, thus supporting limited-capacity models.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1970
- Accession Number
- AD0719797
Entities
People
- Gerald T. Gardner
Organizations
- University of Michigan