Two separate experiments were run to determine the perceptual threshold for time delays between key entry and the appearance of a character, or characters, on a VDT display screen. For the single keystroke case, in which one character was entered and subjects indicated whether or not a delay occurred between key depression and character display, the threshold was 165 milliseconds. In the multiple keystroke experiment, strings of characters were entered while typists visually attended to a display screen. Delays remained fixed during a trial. For this case, the perceptual threshold was 100 milliseconds.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BarberR.E.TiernanB.B., Response Time and Operator Perception. Paper presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Human Factors Society, October, 1978.
2.
BielW.C.WarrickM.J., Studies in Perception of Time Delay. American Psychologist, 1949, 4, 303.
3.
DemberW.P.WarmJ.S., The Psychology of Perception, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979.
4.
RraisseP., The Psychology of Time, New York: Harper and Row, 1963.
5.
ThadhaniA.J., Interactive User Productivity. IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 20 (4), 1981, 407–423.
6.
TinkerM.A., Temporal Perception. In BoringE.G.LangfieldH.S.WeldH.P., Psychology, New York: Wiley, 1935.
