Input, Output, and Response Blocking in Immediate Recall.
Abstract
There are a large number of occasions in which the operator of a complex system must receive and remember a number of briefly displayed visual signals and respond to them appropriately. It is well-known that man's capacity for doing this is limited. Whether that limitation is on the input side of his ability to process information, i.e., to receive and to store in memory, or whether it is on the output side, i.e., to retrieve from memory and select actions, is not known although a great deal of current research and theory is devoted to the question. In this report a method is proposed for measuring the input and the output separately. In addition, by using two assumptions beyond the simple input-output model, the rate of processing of each and the source of loss of information can be determined for specified conditions. Operational definitions of input and output processing times and rates are presented based on a simple model of immediate recall. The temporal measures are then evaluated for the independence of their responsiveness to variables which affect the total processing time. It is concluded that the measures are useful and applicable to a wide variety of theoretical and practical problems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA050302
Entities
People
- Warren H. Teichner
Organizations
- New Mexico State University