Abstract
Two experiments studied the peripheral discriminability of a target differing in its line slope (a tilted T) and in its line arrangement (an L) when presented in briefly flashed displays of upright Ts. The results showed that: (a) an L and a tilted T were equal in discriminability when attention was focused or concentrated on one display position, (b) the discriminability of an L decreased while the discriminability of a tilted T was not statistically significantly affected as the number of display positions that attention needed to be paid to increased, and (c) the reaction time to find a disparate tilted T was less than that to find a disparate L. The results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that, under distributed attention in peripheral vision, the visual system is more sensitive to differences in line slope than to differences in line arrangement The results are discussed in connection with hypotheses of how selective attention affects the discriminability of a target.
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This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant GB-24884. The computer facilities were made available through ARPA Contract F44620-67C-0099. The paper was written while the first author was a visiting member of the Computer Science Center at the University of Maryland. The preparation of the paper was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant GJ-32258X.
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Beck, J., Ambler, B. The effects of concentrated and distributed attention on peripheral acuity. Perception & Psychophysics 14, 225–230 (1973). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212381
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212381