This study investigated the effect of small changes in tachistoscopic exposure of target stimuli on the length of interstimulus interval required to eliminate the masking effect of a subsequent stimulus. This interstimulus interval, termed the Critical ISI, is regarded as the perceptual processing time for the target. At target exposures near the 90% recognition threshold, each 2 msec. increase in target exposure reduced the critical ISI by 30 msec.
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