Two types of short-term visual storage

Seven-letter words were flashed repetitively at various durations above and below the recognition threshold for single flashes. One form of a short-term storage effect was studied by measuring the interstimulus interval between flashes at which S reported that the stimulus became phenomenally discontinuous in time. Storage times reached a maximum of about 300 msec in this task. A second form of storage effect was measured by decreasing the interstimulus interval until S could correctly recognize a repeated stimulus whose duration was below the single-flash recognition threshold; this effect extended to 900 msec in some cases. Each of these effects was reliably obtained for both rare and frequent words. Both forms of storage were increased by providing a dark rather than a lighted adapting field between presentations of the test stimulus. Implications for Information processing of brief displays are discussed.     

A Bayesian prediction of four-look recognition performance from one-look data

The hypothesis that a human O’s (S’s) performance in a visual recognition task can be modelled by Bayes’ theorem was investigated. Two Ss were run for 40 experimental sessions each. Their task was to specify the direction of the gap of tachistoscopically presented Landolt rings (Cs). There were four possible gap directions, and two experimental conditions. In one condition, S responded after each stimulus presentation. In the other, a fixed-observation condition, Ss responded after four consecutive presentations of a C. Exposure durations were such that performance under both conditions was greater than chance, but less than unity. Predictions of four-look performance from one-look data were made. Overall hit rates were predicted closely. The entire pattern of each S’s four-look data was also predicted reasonably well. Further tests of the model are currently under way.