Effects of Stimulus Duration,Temporal Delay,and Complexity on the Judgments of Dot Location

Abstract

The present study investigated how information on location was processed at an early stage of information processing by the task of recognizing dots presented briefly and followed by a masking stimulus. 8 subjects were asked on 1528 trials to recognize the positions of dots presented on a circumference. Effects of number of dots (1, 2, and 3), duration of presentation (36, 56, 200, and 500 msec.), and time delay (interval between the offset of display and the onset of recognition stimulus, 100 and 500 msec.) were examined. Analyses showed that the percentage of correct recognition increased with the duration of presentation and that the effect of duration decreased with the number of dots. Meanwhile, no significant effect was found for time delay. Consequently, with increased duration, the information on location is transferred to short-term visual memory. However, the ratio of transfer from iconic storage to short-term visual memory with duration varied with the complexity of visual stimulus.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Appelle

(1972) Perception and discrimination as a function of stimulus orientation: the oblique effect in man and animals. Psychological Bulletin, 78, 266–278.

Averbach

Coriell

A. S.

(1961) Short-term memory in vision. Bell System Technical Journal, 40, 302–328.

Chow

S. L.

(1986) Iconic memory, location information, and partial report. Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception and Performance, 12, 455–465.

Coltheart

(1980) Iconic memory and visible persistence. Perception & Psychophysics, 27, 183–228.

Dick

A. O.

(1969) Relations between the sensory register and short-term storage in tachistoscopic recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 82, 279–284.

Di Lollo

Clark

C. D.

Hogben

J. H.

(1988) Separating visible persistence from retinal afterimages. Perception & Psychophysics, 44, 363–368.

Essock

E. A.

(1980) The oblique effect of stimulus identification considered with respect to two classes of oblique effects. Perception, 9, 37–46.

Hanari

(1992) [A major factor of the decline in partial report performance with temporal delay.] [The Japanese Journal of Psychology,] 63, 163–169. (English abstract)

Hanari

(1995) Information on location in visual persistence: effects of temporal delay and duration of exposure on report of dot location. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 80, 643–650.

10.

Irwin

D. E.

Yeomans

J. M.

(1986) Sensory registration and informational persistence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 12, 343–360.

11.

Lasaga

M. I.

Garner

W. R.

(1983) Effect of line orientation on various information-processing tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 9, 215–225.

12.

Mewhort

D. J. K.

Campbell

A. J.

Marchetti

F. M.

Campbell

J. I. D.

(1981) Identification, localization, and “iconic” memory: an evaluation of the bar-probe task. Memory & Cognition, 9, 50–67.

13.

Phillips

W. A.

(1974) On the distinction between sensory storage and short-term visual memory. Perception & Psychophysics, 16, 283–290.

14.

Sperling

(1960) The information available in brief visual presentations. Psychological Monographs, 74, No. 3 (Whole No. 498).

15.

Townsend

V. M.

(1973) Loss of spatial and identity information following a tachistoscopic exposure. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 98, 113–118.

16.

Yeomans

J. M.

Irwin

D. E.

(1985) Stimulus duration and partial report performance. Perception & Psychophysics, 37, 163–169.