The effect of interval and number on masking with dot bursts

Bursts of dotted visual noise can interfere with the recognition of dotted alphabetic characters during the period following the presentation of the character. The magnitude of this interference is a function of both the number of dots and the interval between the character and the visual noise burst. The nature of this interaction is explored in this paper and, on the basis of the results obtained, an attempt is made to clarify current notions of the period of interaction surrounding real time visual events.