A total of 24 subjects quickly and correctly checked target Zs in a letter array in order of location. Zs were embedded in angular, round, and mixed angular and round nontarget letters. Checking rate decreased as visual difficulty increased but increased as the number of letters interposed between adjacent targets increased. Time per letter computed for a span, which included a target and interposed letters preceding the target, varied as a function of checking the order of targets. The trend of the variation in rate differentiated among spans of different length and was also influenced by the visual difficulty. This differentiation might represent subject's unintended strategy for the task.
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