Facilitation and Interference in Identification of Pictures and Words
Abstract
This research is concerned with facilitation and interference in the identification of pictures and words. The authors study facilitation by presenting subjects with fragmented stimuli to identify during study, and then test the ability of various types of study stimuli to prime or improve performance on the same stimuli when presented again. An important finding from their previous research is that subjects show more priming when they study a picture that is moderately fragmented during study than one which is either very fragmented or almost intact. They accounted for this phenomenon by the perceptual closure hypothesis, which says that experiencing perceptual closure, or completion of an incomplete figure during a study episode, has the most facilitative effect on subsequent identification. They study interference by presenting more degraded versions of a picture or word just prior to the identification test. Perceptual interference is generally observed if a picture or word is preceded by more fragmented versions of itself just prior to identification. Much of their work on this aspect of the research concerns discovering the reason for the perceptual interference.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 10, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA261484
Entities
People
- Joan G. Snodgrass
Organizations
- New York University